All SSDs are awesome compared to spinning disc hard drives. This SSD is awesome compared to other SSDs. I've used many. I have a few older OCZ Agility 3 ssd drives in my "Main rig" in raid 0 and they're not as fast as this drive. While amazingly cool, lightweight and fast, it's not 100% necessary for most users. There's a good cost premium for this drive, but if you are a performance geek, it's worth EVERY PENNY. This drive is not only faster than other SSDs, it's substantially lighter. Alternatively, Amazon is listing this for just a tad bit more at $99.99.