1156 socket motherboard with a sata 3 connection for a SSD

Go ahead and buy a SSD and use it on your current motherboard.
It is one of the most effective performance enhancements you can buy today.

The real value of a SSD is in the low random i/o response times. 50x faster than a hard drive. sata2/3 is of little importance there.
That is the type of access the os and desktop apps mosyly use, perhaps 90% of the time.

On sequential access sata2 will be a bit slower than sata3, but it will still be 2x faster than a hard drive.

Do not be influenced by synthetic benchmarks, they have little relation to what we actually do.
Performance among all modern SSD's is remarkably similar.

Spend a bit more for an Intel or samsung SSD.
They seem to be the most reliable.

so you're saying SSD doesn't need to connect to a SATA 3 connection?
sorry from what i have been reading it made it sound like SSD can only connect on a SATA 3 connector.

with this then how much of a performance loss will there be with an SSD running on a SATA 2 connection?

Yes u will lost big performance in reading, but in writing not so much..

It's true the ssd will shine in sata3, but if u compare it with HDD it still much improvement even in sata2.. (plus u can move it into new rig later..)

Just make sure u set it into ACHI mode... (if u do clean install of OS make sure u just connect the SSD, and connect the HDD later after installation finis)

Sata 2/3 connections are both forward and backward compatible.
Sata3 has a higher maximum bandwidth which can only be pushed by a SSD, not a hard drive.

You will see a loss in sequential benchmarks, nothing in the more important random operations.

But you will not be able to tell the difference in actual operations.
I think it is a non issue.

Worth is something only YOU can decide, but buying a replacement socket 1156 motherboard for that feature seems pointless to me. Your 860 is still a great chip, so I would point to 2013 when Haswell and socket 1150 arrive for an upgrade.

I agree.
Just buy a half decent SSD. In practice it's difficult to see the difference between a good SSD on SATA1 and one 3x as quick.

Not only are things getting quite fast already but much of the Windows and application data gets buffered to your System RAM.

*You might want to update your motherboard BIOS if new firmware exists.