I'd warn that making buying decisions based upon one experience is fraught with potential pitfalls...... Any manufacturer's unit can fail but what most people fail to recognize is that manufacturers make different products for different market niche's. An experience with the quality of a manufacturer's "budget line" offering tells nothing about the performance of their premium lines. Corsair and Antec's PSU's are a fine example....neither makes a single PSU....they buy from OEM's products of varying quality and performance to suit various market niches. Some are great, some are good and some frankly stink but they all have the same label on them.
The Mushkin Chronos Deluxe uses premium 3Xnm Toshiba Toggle Mode Flash which has a very long service life and top end performance ....
that flash is not in their other SSD lines so comparing one with the other is like comparing steak and bologna because both are sold by by the same grocery market. More importantly, its hard to get hung up on the "brand name" on the unit, when ya choose a different one, can ya not expect the same results from the other vendors that use the same controller or the same (or slower, less durable) flash ? Basically the differentiation is in customer service, warranty and support as well as pricing.
That being said, I buy Tier 1 for 240 / 256 GB and Tier 3 for 120 / 128 GB (See THG link below). I tended to lean towards whatever is cheapest on "buy day" but favor the Mushkin Chronos Deluxe for the premium 3Xnm Toshiba Toggle Mode Flash which has a very long service life and top end performance ...... (the OWC Mercury Extreme. Patriot Wildfire and Vertex Max IOPS also use same flash) .... and the Samsung 830.
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/4328/mushkin_chronos_deluxe_120gb_solid_state_drive_review/index13.html
To sum it all up with a bow on top, you get amazing performance, extremely long service life and a hassle free low price point on a drive [Mushkin Chronos Deluxe] that literally has very little competition in the marketplace.
Given the above, and the fact that Mushkin has it all over everyone else by a loooong margin w/ current pricing, I really can't see looking at anything else
(and by that I mean the Chronos Deluxe ONLY .... not other Mushkin lines) at this point in time. In the 240 / 256 GB size, the Mushkin is between 61 % and 75% of the Tier 1 competition. At the 120 / 128G size it's between 68 % and 76% of the Tier 3 competition. If ya don't want flash with Toshiba's high performance/ long service life flash, that kills 3 outta the 4 units in THG's top tiers and leaves ya only w/ Samsung 830 to choose from. I have bought a few of those when they were the cheapest from their respective tier and have no complaints.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-review-benchmark,3139-6.html
Tier 1
Mushkin Chronos Deluxe 240 GB -
$250 -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226226
OCZ Vertex 3 Max IOPS 240 GB - $410 -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227715
Patriot WildFire 240 GB - $350 -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220600
Samsung 830 SSD 256 GB - $330 -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147164
Tier 3
Mushkin Chronos Deluxe 120 GB -
$140 -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226318
OCZ Vertex 3 Max IOPS 120 GB - $205 -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227714
Patriot WildFire 120 GB - $185 -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220599
Samsung 830 SSD 128 GB - $160 -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147163
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