If you are using brtfs (well first why are you using brtfs on a personal computer!) you should not be using brtfs, this is because the ssd stuff is always a "future featureset". It could be chewing through ssds because you aren't explitely enabling discard/trim (which are not enabled by default in brtfs) If you are looking for snapshots, I'd highly suggest xfs which is mature, and has great ssd support with awesome snapshot options.
I did have ssd support enabled though. That is what is particularly getting me annoyed. Will look into xfs, though I did find some of the features of brtfs really interesting/cool. Need a working modern computer though, so I should probably set something up to boot off of usb.
Yeah, but the ssd support does NOT enable TRIM by default sadly. (Unless you mean you added it in /etc/fstab manually in which case somethin else fishy awaits) My personal experience with brtfs has been, horrible to say the least. The important thing, as you said is getting up and runnin!