1. Pretty much no. The latest patches since a few months ago has pretty much fixed up the BSOD issues, reports are much more uncommon now in comparison to last year.
There are however still users getting BSODs, but they can be down to other factors not just the firmware.

2. I still prefer the Marvell controllers (Crucial M4) over the Sandforce. Eventhough Sandforce, on paper atleast is faster than Marvell controllers but they do have a performance deficit when it comes to incompressible data.
For me, the Marvell controller is better as their speed doesn't drop regardless of what kind of data it is processing.

3. Crucial M4 128GB or Intel 330 128GB. As they're the closest to your RM400 budget, both drives are around RM430-RM450. So you still have to pony up a little bit.