It's faster than mechanical storage, but not as fast as an SSD.

There's bugs that crop up with every new generation of SSD. I believe they're mostly resolved on the current ones, though. I would probably do a Windows System Image backup every week or so on the SSD, just so you can restore it easily if something goes haywire.

Have a look at anandtech.com for authoritative articles on SSDs and the Intel tech you're referring to. Techreport also has good data.

I am the Doctor, and THIS... is my SPOON!