Best choice of SSD for my budget

Plextor M5 Pro Extreme is the best in the list above.

Whats your usage of the drive? If its going to act as a plain boot drive, just go for the 840.

I normally recommend Samsung due to their excellent track record. Crucial, Intel, and Plextor are also worth considering.

I maintain the ssd database listed in the sticky at the very top of this forum section. Here is the link:

http://www.johnnylucky.org/data-storage/ssd-database.html

Scroll down to the brands and models you are interested in and follow the links to the technical reviews.

Not sure why the person in the post above selected that Plextor drive ^ . Although it is a very good drive, the Samsung 840 pro is faster, in fact it is the one of the fastest, if not the very fastest drive available right now. I have had a couple of Corsair SSD's in the past, and I must say that the Samsung 840 Pro I have now is simply an amazing drive. Extremely pleased with it.

Not sure how many people realized that there are no 840 pro in that list. The Plextor M5P extreme and the OCZ V4 are quite close to each other, but OCZ is well known for their high failure rate.

You should go back and read the post again.....
And to the OP, if you do go Samsung, be CERTAIN you get the Pro series.

Oh, right, how did I miss that Its price there is a bit higher than usual, thou.

OCZ make good SSD's in my opinion, their bad reputation is based solely on a single drive (the Vertex 3) and even then the issues were over-stated because at the time everyone bought one.

1) Every one keeps referring to Synthetic Benchmarks.
I have 3 M4s, 3 830's, 2 840 Pros, and HAD 2 Agility III's.
In My systems the Crucial M4 and the Samsung 830s both have a overall AS SSD score of mid 700's while the 840 PRO scores a WHOOPING 1100. You would think that would translate to a BIG performance increase in day-2-day operation - NOPE, very small performance diff.

A) The best, money NOT a concern: The Samsung 840 pro - Good bragging rights, A few Apps will see a measurable performance boost (Just not a big boost). For laptops, this is the one to get as it has one of the lowest Power consumptions.

B) Mid level choice, the Plextor M5P and Crucial M4 - Very good in least User problems and reliability - Good Price (Crucial M5 needs to be on the market longer for me to recommend).

C) Budget. Samsung 840 Non-Pro. Lower cost than (B), Probably never tell the performance diff fro (B). Only reason I do Not include with (B) is the Stated manuf Write cycles for TLC vs MLC.
... Please Note should not be a concern as still should last until time to replace as Newer tech available.
*** 840 Non Pro see Johnny's excellent post on life cycle test for 840 Non-Pro: http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1655789/samsung-840-ssd-tlc-nand-torture-test-update.html
** My criteria: Least User Problems, Reliability, and compatibility (Compatibility only in terms of older system currently Not always the case as Vertex 3 and agility IIIs initially had compatibility problems even on "NEW" systems). While the SATA III SSDs using the SF controllers are OK, I much prefer the Marvel and the Samsung Controllers. A few Newer controllers are starting to show up, judgement delayed'

GOOD price is wait for a sale on the 256 Gig versions:
840 pro - $200->$220
M4 & M5p (Also if you can still find the 830) - $170
840 Non- Pro - $150

PS @ manofchalk - It is NOT because they Turned out a BAD SSD ( 2 drives, Agility III and Vertex III) as the same Problem affected several other Brands using the Sandforce 22xx controller - IT was the way they treated customers. They placed the blame on individual's knowledge and systems - BOO. They FINAL fixed the Controller, the vertex 4 does not use the SF controller, and they have REPLACED to upper management - Sorry Charlie, Too late as several others OCZ products (NOT just SSDs) will never grace the inside of my Computer - Maybe after a few years of PROVING that they as a company they have changed.

Comment on Size: The 120/128 gig SSD is currently the recommended drive, But the 256 gig drives on sale represent the best value. Remember that a 120/128 gig SSD is ONLY approx. 80/95 Gigs USABLE space.
ie for my 128 gig SSDs. Formated = 119 Gigs, then subtract 20% (24 gigs) = 95 Gigs. Use to be 10 % free space, Now 20 % is recommended so that Wear leveling, Garbage Collector, and TRIMM can work their magic keeping the drive performance upto snuff.

Based on your comments I take it you are not in the United States.

1) I have 10 Sata III SSDs and 5 OLD SATA II SSDs dating back to Intel's G1 and G2. Represents 7 Different manuf - NOT one has failed.
2) My Golden rules:
.. A) Never Handle if Relative humidity is below 35% WITHOUT first discharging any static build up (ESD).
.. B) NEVER over fill, Never go above 80% used.
.. C) Verify that TRIM is enabled and SSD is using a driver that will pass TRIM (ie AHCI)
.. D) Watch for "Bug" reports" and update FW to fix any bug reports. EXample: Intel had a 5 mb bug that would brick their SSD, Crucial M4 had a 5000 Hr bug (Both were Fixed by FW updates).

Will I note the Warrantee period, there are other reasons that manuf cut the time frame. Mostly to cut the cost and DO not effect the "expected Life span"

I'd be willing to bet that a Large percentage of RMAs for SSDs are USER inflicked, not due to manuf problems - Just make sure you do NOT pick a model/brand that seems to have "problems"