Which port you plugged to? Is it USB3.0?
How about try to set in the BIOS setting to not boot from USB?

4K read isn't impressive, only the writes looks good on a database server.

Samsung Magician (Rapid Mode) for its own controller (SSD's controller).
Intel Smart Connect for its own controller (Intel onboard chipset, on the mainboard).
Intel's software however does nothing to improve my SSD's performance, so I think (IMO) not much different.

I'm using Plextor ler... don't scare me ler...

Wow, good price, that's USD100 right? Grab it! I would too if I can afford it now! I have some other priorities in my live so darn it!!!!
Btw, do check if it can deliver to MY, some items they don't deliver to MY and needs forwarder, may end up higher price than local, and thus defeat the purpose, what's more is the RMA... ugh, thinking about it make me wonder sometimes if it's worth getting from oversea.

It's cheaper means the manufacturing cost is already cheaper, so they can sell cheaper, it's a good way/strategy to bring down the overall SSD pricing, competitive reason as well, this is good for consumer like us...

LOL, tempted to order as well, but broke already this month, probably another 2 months ahead... Wonder still have such offer? Maybe cheaper?

With no AHCI, you're basically diminishing the SSD's value, SSD is fast but for it to works wonderfully and longevity, you needs AHCI.
SSD optimization also maximize its performance and prolong its lifespan.
For you case, you will probably only feels the performance drop after days to weeks of usage, when the SSD reaches its peak and no garbage collection (a.k.a. TRIM).
Be sure to read more about optimization before you complains when it's slowing down.
Mine has already write over few TBs (using VM lots few months ago with huge database works) and no, boot up and opening applications still the same speed, except the CPU couldn't keep up at time.

Well, for Windows Vista and above, just set the registry (first) then go to BIOS and set to AHCI, and good to go, simple as that.
I do see optimization highly recommends AHCI due to the TRIM... was I wrong?

Enterprise will usually have RAID and other multi-device redundancy in check so SSD/HDD failure is not an issue at all, but of course a good way to warn before it even fail is a good sign for SSD manufacturer such as Intel, this shows Intel is in good account for such measure, thumbs up for Intel but would like their drive to live a bit longer though... (Expensive ler.. my friend...)

Oh, this one should be put on first page, can always quote those newbie to look at first page for more information, unless TL;DR then we can smack them a bit (beyond spoon-feed).

Bad news is he can't recover his data... most of the SSD still can't do that as yet, once you reach its max... it die, no read-only, nothing, just die, if that's business perspective, it's not a very good sign.

I think it's charged when it's shipped or probably few days due to International processing.

If one can boot from a RAID card, I'm pretty sure can boot from PCI-E drive, provided the BIOS can detect the drive on boot, and has the ability to set the boot to that particular drive, I don't have any to test but servers has been able to do it since few years back (Windows 2008/2003) so I'm pretty sure consumer grade mainboard these days should be able to.

Wait for 2nd hand? Anyone selling less-used?
Another few more years and when they're phase out and some retailers still keeping old stock with very limited warranty.
By then, even the 512GB is much worth than 120GB, expecting around RM350 ~ 380 next mid-year.

Conclusion, buy what you can afford now, or just wait until you cannot tahan any more...

Wow, RAID0
Mind give review on the loading speed, of course the game that you played, and of course the same condition as possible, such as the same numbers of antivirus installed, background drivers, programs, etc. when it's at your PC, of course.

Ah, some misunderstanding, of course the reason I want the same condition on the background services and programs running would be on the same level as you load your current games right now, background services and programs (antivirus, etc) does play a role in loading your games.
But if you going to be used in your completely new system then I assume the differences is way huge, but if you can, just do it anyway at your convenient, this will of course poison someone else to "invest" in SSD...

I think 1TB is enough? And since you're going for RAID0 then you should have 2TB, either one die and you can kiss goodbye the rest of the installed game, that's RAID0 for you.
Assume you going for RAID0 I can tell you're ready for frequent image (sort of backup) of your games, this is an advice.

Anyway, don't forget to post your loads time between old PC and new one once you got hold of your new system, since it's going to be so powderful I can only drool.

2TB not enough? Now that's news by looking at the total games you going to install (< 500GB).
Unless you want to keep all the games, including old which you may not play frequently but do keep for sake of no need to install later?
You can always buy another 2 units of 1TB (in the future?) and RAID0 4 units of SSD = 4TB.
Going Pro for OS and RAID0, don't think that will help much in terms of loading the OS, unless you have other huge IO intensive programs, RAID0 don't help much in OS boot.

RAID0 will not kill the SSD, but failure of one SSD will kill your data, that's RAID0 weakness. If you feel reinstalling all the games is troublesome, do image backup occasionally will help you save the time to do so.

A dedicated RAID card is nice for extreme RAID (performance) but it has its downside as well, if you're serious about latency and stuff, dedicated RAID card is a way to go, no need to get 10x SATA board in order to use its inferior RAID chips (not to say Intel is bad).

ronaldjoe is taigo in storage sections, his opinions is good advise.

I can't afford to play with RAID card yet, but surely will goes into this when I'm desperate enough.

Anything between 60~120GB is not worth the price right now, unless you're seriously on budget, 120GB can be have for under RM300 for most known brand.
Also, SSD has a weakness, available space below 15% will incur some performance hits and pretty much noticeable when writing data (saving documents, shutting down OSes ex. Windows)
60GB, if you can find, is around RM200? Topup around RM100 more to double... And the performance is also better, the sweet price range now is 250GB but that's probably still high for some, RM4xx~5xx

Erm, HDD is... bigger space? Totally different category, can't compare.

Does it only peak at certain time or almost always?
Do you runs anything or copying huge files when you saw that value?