[ksuther]

Last summer I purchased a 240GB Vertex 2 for about $600 for my early 2008 MacBook Pro. It turned a machine that I was starting to feel the age of into a completely new machine. When I upgraded to a new MBP last month, the old machine with the SSD still felt more responsive than the new one out of the box. Even considering that the same drive today is $200 less, having the insane speed for 10 months was well worth it.

If I were buying an SSD new, I'd still go with a third-party drive over the drives Apple ships. The only downside is it looks like 10.7 might bring TRIM support to the stock drives they ship while leaving third-party drives out in the cold. Performing the actual upgrade is really quick, you just unscrew the bottom and pop out the old drive. Just make sure you have the right size Torx driver.

I can't imagine ever being subjected to an HDD again.