A few newb questions

[Validatorian]

I am going to be upgrading my system in the next two weeks or so, and i have a few questions.

First, I have an intel SSD (2nd gen), -- would getting 6gb/s SATA help that, or would I need an SSD that has a 6gb/s controller?

Second, if my mobo supports DDR3 2200/1600/1333/1066 -- what are the performance incentives between them? (I couldn't find any articles of the same RAM, but 2200 vs 1600, etc.)

I'm currently planning on getting and i5-750 and a GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD4P mobo and overclocking the CPU (I have a 'Freezer Pro Rev. 2' heatsink/fan, fwiw)

I'm still not sure about the RAM.

Suggestions? Comments?

 

[masterasia]

1. No, 6gb/s will not help that. The current drives don't even max out 3gb/s.
2. Ram isn't really that important because performance gains are minimal.
You should buy what you can afford. 1600Mhz is good. If you plan on doing
extreme overclocking, then the 2000Mhz+ will be better, but most 1600mhz ram
can be overclocked to about 1800Mhz, even 2000Mhz.

Also on that GA-P55A board, if you do use SATA 6gb/s, then you won't be able to do SLI or CFX because it shares the same PCI-E lanes as the GPU. Which also means your GPU will run at 8X instead of 16X. Also, it's not true 6gb/s. It's more like 4~5 gb/s because of the integrated PCI-E controller on the CPU. If you want true 6gb/s for a P55 board, then you have to get a board with the NF200 chip or got the X58 route.

 

[Validatorian]

Thanks for your reply,
I don't intend to do any extreme OCing, just a bit.

Is there another mobo you would recommend in the place of the ud4p, as I don't have any immediate use for the usb 3.0 or sata 6gb features.

 

[masterasia]

If I were to build a P55 rig right now I would choose the ASUS Maximus III
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131482

Tom's just posted an article on top end P55 boards and this seems to be the better one. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/lga-1156-p55,2519.html

 

[Validatorian]

Best answer selected by validatorian.