thanks, tenashus1. that certainly does address my question by means of a recommendation. so then, is the sandisk my only 'out of the box' option?
to be frank, i'd prefer to stick with the M4 or 830, as they seem to be better SSDs looking into the future. i just spoke with a representative from crucial and he was pretty adamant the M4 would work just fine, out of the box, and at a link speed of 3.0 in my vintage MBP. has there been firmware upgrades since all of these problems were encountered? and is this SATA thing the only potential issue i'm facing? has anyone installed an M4 into their non-13" 2009 MBP recently with success?
(out of interest - whilst my link speed is 3.0 (SATA II, right?), my negotiated link speed is currently reading only 1.5 with my stock 7200rpm - is this normal?)