If I was to change only one hardware - what would it be? (specs inside)

[PP Mguire]

Yea I just checked their Rev2 and on Newegg. Kinda stupid, considering my P55 board wasn't a USB3 model and it had SATA3 on the 2 white slots.

Oh well, to the OP, it won't affect the real speed which is IOPS, only sequential read/write.

 

[amirgelman]

hey all,
just to update you - i've just tried connecting the ssd to one of the white ports and if anything it gave me about 3rd of the performance i had. and on the diagnostics of the Samsung Magician it said he doesn't even recognize the SATA (while it was connected to the white ports)...
this makes me believe that the white ports are actually much less good. so for now, i've returned it to one of the blue ports.
i think my motherboard is a dinasour and so it doesn't have any SATA3 (whatever that is).

any recommendations on a motherboard that is cheap and yet will do the job? and will be compatible with my CPU??

THIS IS MY SPECS (a reminder):

 

[carnageX]

Like PP said, don't worry about upgrading just for SATA3.

 

[Joe C]

You can get a pci-e sata III card but you may or may not notice much difference
This one's on sale for $17. with promo code EMCEGGK35
SYBA SI-PEX40064 PCI-Express 2.0 Low Profile Ready SATA III (6.0 Gb/s) Controller Card - Newegg.com

I have an old X58 board and I think it's a little better than just running my SSD on sata II, of course it's not as good as having sata III on the board, but a little bit helps, and it's only $17.

 

[PP Mguire]

The white ports on that H57 board are controlled by a Gigabyte SATA controller.

SATA3 is SATA 6Gb/s which is double the throughput of SATA2 3Gb/s. The only difference you'll see is sequential read and write speed. Basically, instead of 450MB/s read and write file transfer you'll be limited to 250MB/s. That's not really a big deal because you don't have another SSD in your system to move files back and forth to. The speed from an SSD comes from IOPS, no spinning parts, no latency, and no seek/access times.

Don't bother getting a new motherboard for this, you won't notice a difference so it's a lot of work for nothing. Plus, nobody sells these boards new for a reasonable price.