SATA3 has 6Gbps theoritical bandwidth, should see around 580~600MBps peak in practical use, that benchmark probably hitting 60%+ of the total bandwidth, so it's ok.
RAID0 few of it and hit the max.

The problem in Malaysia is there's less to no distributor to some great and/or rare items, that's why it's so expensive, it's also sort of monopolize.
Even the value items will become not-so-value when it came into Malaysia, and at the East here, we suffer more than just the conversion, shipping from West already cost us, even worst some retailer just don't want to import the stuff I wanted... *sigh*

Write speed is as important as in extracting files, installing application, anything that require saving/writing to the disk space.
For most gamer, write is not as important, it reads most of time, seldom writes unless it saves game.
But people use SSD not because of their speed, it's because of their 1ms or less access time.

SSD MTBF is quite low compare to HDD, especially the write, but few millions times should be sufficient for normal user, but if you're mainly for 24/7 file-server, I would strongly suggest normal HDD, and especially those eco-green model which not only provide enough speed, but save power and less heat.
If you want performance, then SSD, for the sake of access time, especially I/O intensive programs, I don't see games has much improvement except for slightly faster loading time. But Windows 7 will benefit from it very much, not only boot faster, but starts programs fast as well, plus it can load up to few hundred programs at once without breaking sweat (provided the speed is fast as well).

Conclusion, if you're gamer alone, you won't feel much different when you're in-game, except for faster loading speed, Windows 7 will load faster, no defrag require, pretty much all. However if you're workstation user that uses Photoshop, Autodesk programs, etc lots, then you'll feel the different in using these SSD. Be an efficient consumer, well unless you have those $$ to spend, then no problem at all.

Edit: For you case, you can consider 80GB for your Windows 7 and Games, a 30~40GB for Windows and other for Games, and buy another 2TB or 3TB eco green model hard disk for the files transfer, the hard disk should provide enough speed for your 24/7 file server, 1Gbps network speed has no yet break the hard disk speed yet (IMO).

This post has been edited by wildwestgoh: Oct 22 2010, 05:05 PM

I think your solution is quite easy, anything flash memory will do (no magnetic spinning drive), if you think your space is a concern, you should invest on bigger space SSD, recording video is taking quite lots of space after all.

SATA1 = 150MB/s max theoretically so you'll see significant drop in read, while Intel's write still within the margin, sandforce types will see drops as well, huge bottleneck and waste of $$ so it's recommend with much newer system to fully utilize SSD technology.
If you don't mind the speed, access time will greatly helps you in loading time, which can improve OS, application and IO intensive loading latency.

You can get 160GB x 2 (haven seen any 320GB model yet) and RAID0, even faster.
Provided your Mac Pro support RAID.

Ok, I know any folders can be added as default "My Documents", but I didn't knew Desktop can be done as well, teach teach

Erm, yeah I know about "My Documents", please teach the "Desktop" one

If you feel your games loading speed is tremendously slow, then yes it's worth the upgrade to get the lightning blink speed, but I don't see any point of that because nowadays games tend to load ahead when you play so you get smoother gameplay (for some games).
Other than that, gaming performance is not affected.

I don't think that's significant (RAM has over few hundred GB/sec), but chipset (ICH7, ICH9, etc.) might have slight different in bandwidth and speed.

I think Intel's SSD only lose out on the writing speed, other than that, read speed is quite normal, almost hitting the SATA2 limits, and the access speed is comparable with those Sandforce, but seriously you won't feel it in real life unless you're working in enterprise web server or huge SQL server.

What do you plan on using the SSD for?
If you don't goes up to the benchmarked figures, either SSD won't be much of a different for you, except for the its writing speed.
Might wait until it hits below RM3/GB then maybe get one for my laptop

Cheapest? >.<" Still quite ouch for some casual consumer like me, but for gamer that can afford, the price point should be around 120GB, not sure why 160GB is slightly much expensive but small different, around RM 5+/GB.
Now date is 31 May, 2011, wonder what's the price for 40~120GB just 1 year ago?

Ah, my quote, is from the famous....

click here for the selling thread >> http://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopic=828708

PCI-E has better bandwidth and faster I/O between RAM and the SSD.
That SSD if not mistaken can goes up to 1.xGB/s and it really cost you a kidney, not for the consumer perhaps, only serious application server require that amount of bandwidth and IOPS.

To answer your question, no, SSD will also fail over time but not because of mechanical failing but software (firmware) failing to works or corrupted just like the OCZ that you read above. It can fail overnight or after 1~2 years, no-one knows.
SSD reliability (long-term) has not been proven yet so no-one can tell you, but Intel does gain its trust through many industrial users.

What performance are you looking at here? Transfer speed or access time (response time)?
Can you list out what HDD that you currently using?
FYI you will not see performance in:
1. Processing documents.
2. Gaming performance, but loading does affect by a bit.
3. Some application still takes time to load, cut down by 1~2 seconds only.

And, you could use 64-bit to maximize your RAM, you can use your current license key to install 64-bit win7.

Yes, notice that you're using x86, and you installed 4GB of RAM.
Your current license key able to install onto x64 of the same edition of windows.
If you're using Windows 7 Home Premium x86 now, you can use the license key to install Windows 7 Home Premium x64, it works both way and has been verified.

Windows 7 itself require 14GB to install, Office require at least 2~3GB, Photoshop along need around 2GB, so it's enough, but you need cater other things such as page file, hibernate file, temporary files (Internet, Running/Installing programs, Windows Update, etc.) and other files that you will work with.
40GB is enough for fair usage, but you might find space will eventually runs out when you runs it everyday. 80GB to be much secure, 40GB for Windows 7 and programs, the rest documents will be at another partition.