Funny, as far as I know Intel still hasn't fixed the 8MB bug a 100%. So I would never recomend such a drive. OCZ still has huge problems with their SSDs. At least Crucial fixes the problems with updates, compared to SandForce based SSDs, which still haven't fixed all bugs on the newest generation. (Just BSOD and so on)
There are enough examples out there. Don't get me wrong I have a Vertex 3 in my notebook, but for stability I only currently would recomend the Crucial m4. When I look trhough computer and hardware forums it's the drive with the least problems and no major bugs compared to Intel. It's also amazingly fast especially with the current firmware.
1. The intel 320 series 8mb was a very obscure bug that only occurred under very specific circumstances. Even if they left it alone, the 320 series wouldn't be creating issues for the vast majority of users. Are you saying the last firmware fix for the 8mb bug didn't fix the problem? I haven't heard that.. but it's still a minor bug, not the type the Crucials have had that affects a lot of users.
2. If a company publishes 7 firmware revisions for the same problems as they done for the C300 and M4.. that's not really "fixing" the problem is it? We're talking bugs that affect most users, performance issues, stuttering, etc. 7 revisions for the C300 and they finally gave up. It still has issues, but now that they're on their new series they figure it's "good enough." Now their new series is on the 9th revision and according to the forums it's still not fixed. These are not the type of drives you recommend for users who want stable trouble free operation.
3. OCZ and Crucial both suffer from the performance race. Enthusiasts buy them mostly to 'hot rod' and they take great joy in finding bugs and posting about it in their respective forums which is fair enough. With OCZ, if you just use it and leave it alone.. it works fine. No performance issues, no data loss issues, it works. With Crucial it's always been about performance issues. Intel supports a different group of people.. Put an intel SSD in a system, and if it works when you put it in, it will work fine forever after with the normal amount of hardware failures any company experiences.
4. Crucial used to have a rock solid reputation.. they blew it when they let their SSD division rush product out when competing in the market. 7 revisions on one series and it's still not fix? 9 on their newest? This is not a finished product. It's a time bomb. Sure, the Intel 320 series had the 8mb bug.. but it only occurred under very specific conditions, so it affected very few customers. If you're saying their very first firmware revision didn't fix it 100%, but only made it less obscure.. okay, fine. I'll take that over a company with a track record of blatant negligence like Crucial.. and I say that with 3 Crucial products of my own and over 25-30 I put in customers machines.. Then, there weren't that many choices.. now there are.