Gigabyte P55A-UD4P Upgrade questions

[Scynthe]

Hi, I'm looking to upgrade my rig and have a few questions.

This is my rig as it stands:
Intel i5 760 OCed to 4.00ghz
16GB RAM
OCZ Vertex 4 SSD 128gb
WD Caviar Black 1tb
2x GTX 460 1gb SLI

Now a note on this motherboard in particular. If i want to use Sata 3 6gb/s it will disable my second PCIe slot and drop the first to 8X. Which obviously sucks. As such my SSD is running not much faster than my traditional drives.

My question for upgrading is; Would I benefit more from a new Mobo/CPU combo which will allow me to use Sata 3 with my current SLI configuration, or would I be better off upgrading my GPU to a GTX 670 and dropping the SLI config so that Sata 3 can be enabled?

Thank for any answers!

 

[o1die]

Get a sata III adapter: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816124045 It's cheaper than buying a new board/cpu combo.

 

[Scynthe]

Get a sata III adapter: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816124045 It's cheaper than buying a new board/cpu combo.

Wouldn't that put me in the same boat tho? I'd lose one of my 460s for the PCI-E slot for that adapter.

 

[Scynthe]

At the moment I'm leaning toward grabbing a i7 2700k with a z77 mobo.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

 

[o1die]

Didn't know your 460 used the small 1x pci-e. Doesn't it use the full size slot? The adapter sata card should fit one of the short pci-e slots. For your upgrade, depends on the price and overclocking potential. I'd go for a used sandy bridge cpu if that's what you want to save some $$. I've found some brand new 2600K's for $200 on craigslist.

 

[Scynthe]

Its not that it uses the slot, it's more than there is very little space left after the 2 cards.

I could probably squeeze the card in between but will that have any negative heat effects? Either on the card because its sandwiched between the 460s, or the 460s themselves?

Also would the card offer the same speed as if I had a newer motherboard?

The benchmarks I am getting off this Vertex 4 are horrible at the moment and not anywhere near what they should be.

 

[o1die]

If you have the money, then go with one of these z77 sli boards:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130644 (excellent value, no pci slot)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130660 (no onboard video ports)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131848

I'm sure you have made up your mind on the cpu; I use a 2120, and it's plenty fast for me.