I already made the move you are considering. I went from Cheetahs to an Intel SSD. A heck of a lot faster, quiet, cool, easy to set up. I already do a weekly backup, so I just added a weekly drive diagnostic, smart check etc to the routine. Also, I moved away from the Plextor's years ago. They were surpassed long ago for ripping; which is about 90% of what I use my drives for. I also have the ASUS P6X58D Premium. Solid board, but EOL at Asus. I had to do some digging outside ASUS to get the latest USB 3.0 drivers, for example.
