I upgaded from an X25-M 80Gb G2. That was the best drive available when it came out. This is a very good drive and with the rebate it's a good value too. Everything is snappy and responsive, not just programs and windows, but webpages too. The difference from my X25-M is noticable but not dramatic. If you are upgrading from a spinning HDD there is no better upgrade that speeds your computer up. SSD is pricey but well worth it. I went with intel again because I like the support and reputation. I also like the ease of installation; Intel drives just work. All the tools and firmware are easily found on Intel's download page. Plus the firmware updates don't erase your data. However, you should back up anyway.It is not the fastest drive out there, which is the only reason I gave the 510 a 4 star rating. Intel has the resources and experiance to max out the SATA 3 connection. However, the Sandforce controller responsable for the best speeds may also be unreliable (more on this in other thoughts below). Intel may simply have felt it was not ready yet. Look for the next generation to kill it.***EDIT***What did I tell you. Intel released the 520 series in late 2011 with the sandforce controller and are killing it. They even offer a five year warranty. That is unheard of in the SSD industry, especially with the sandforce controllers. While OCZ is still encountering problems after deciding to rush to market, the intel 520s are stable and reliable, if not a year late to the party. That is called thurogh testing in order to maintain a high degree of quality. Not to mention they get the best NAND flash memory which will inherintly last longer than other manufacturers.TECHNICAL INFORMATION:The SSD toolbox optimizes windows for SSD's and can run the TRIM command in IDE mode. Great for XP. However, there is one thing you will have to do yourself...Turn off indexing services. Go to my computer right click on the drive and choose properties. Then uncheck the box that says "allow files on this drive to have its content indexed in addition to file properties". Same process for XP, vista, and 7.In AHCI Win 7 sends TRIM automatically. The toolbox will says it can't run on RAID arays, even if it actually is recieving TRIM from the OS in AHCI mode. If you want to verify that trim is enabled, then open a comand prompt (Start bar -> search -> "CMD") and Type "fsutil behavior query disabledeletenotify" (Without quotes). If = 0, then TRIM is Enabeled. If = 1, then TRIM is disabled. That tells you if Win 7 is sending the TRIM command, but not if the drive is implementing it. You will have to trust it is.In RAID arrays there is no way for the drive to recieve TRIM. You can not run TRIM on drives in raid. However, it's unlikely you'll notice the performance drain.Here are the useful numbers:X25-M- 247MB/s read, 87MB/s write maximum throughput, 10,000 IOPS in the 4K file size, 0.125ms access time, and Windows Experance Index gives it a 7.2.510 Elm Creast- 465MB/s Read, 218MB/s write maximum throughput, 21,000 IOPS in the 4K file size, 0.146ms access time, and Windows Experance Index gives it a 7.8.These were the very best numbers from all my drive benchmarks (Crystal disc mark 3, HD tune pro, AS SSD, and ATTO Disc). They represent the best you can expect from these drives. 512K/4K read and writes, and access time have a greater influence on quickness than maximum throuput. I have seen better from both the OCZ vertex 3 and crutial C300 drives.OTHER THOUGHTS:It's not the fastest drive out there. That honor goes to the newer Sandforce driven OCZ family of drives. However, OCZ is having trouble with intermittent BSODs in some consumer systems. The problem is that a costomer will report a problem and return the drive, but it will test perfectly in OCZs computers. OCZ has released firmware to fix most issues people are having with their drives. They are a reasonabe buy, but they are still trying to track down gremlins in the works. If you decide to try these drives back up your system, update drive firmware, and retain all your purchase information incase you need to return it.It may not be OCZ's fault either, other manufacturesrs are having simalair problems and no one seems to have any answers. Sandforce is trying to track down the problem and has had discussions with Intel about it. So it may be an issue with the controller itself. I find it interesting that OCZ siad they "hope thoes guys can figure it out" which says to me that they are at their wits end. There are just too many different motherboards, chipsets, and settings to test. No one knows for sure where the problem lies which make this a paticularly difficult problem to debug. Of these issues Intel seems to have the fewest, which is why I went with them.***EDIT***I take it that they were successful in tracking down the problem and ironing it out in the controller. Intel's new 520s with the sandforce controllers are living up to intel's reputation. Meanwhile OCZ is still having intermitent problems and trying to hide it. Intel must not be sharing what they learned from thoes discussions with sandforce.***EDIT***Just thought I would add my experiance with the rebate portion too. I created my claim on 6/26/11, providing all the information they asked for + carefully making copies for my records, and after aproval my rebate was shipped on 08/23/2011. I hadn't recieved it by 11/21/11 and e-mailed the rebate center at intel (4myrebateintel or something) telling them I hadn't recieved it yet. They had me call american express and give them my confirmation #. They re-issued the prepaid reward card and shipped it out. I recieved it 12/3/11. Also, I have 90 days to use it up (Whrerever AMEX is accepted).