I wouldn't worry about SSD failure. At least, not as much as one usually worries about HDD failure :)
The guys at hardware.fr did a nice experiment: they set up a computer to do continuous write-erase cycles on an SSD in order to see how long it would last, and when performance decreases would start. The drive handled about 600 TB of write operations before it started to show problems. I think you'll admit this is enough for average usage. The 8800GT though, that's another story. It's kind of an outdated GPU, not one I'd put in a recent PC, especially one that comes at £599. Bear in mind there are no really expensive hardware except the SSD. I think you could haggle a bit on the price and/or ask for a higher-end/more modern GPU :) If you really want to be picky, the Crucial M4 series of SSDs got better reviews than the Agility 3 series. That and the fact OCZ has got a bit of bad rep for their customer service (although that will be your colleague's problem, not yours).
