windows 7 What are best "bang for buck" upgrades for my MSI m/brd?

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Hello y'all,

This is multi-question post, my apologies if it does not conform to this forum's protocol, I thought it would make more sense, than posting 3 different questions related to the same topic. Hope somebody more intelligent than I, can enlighten my electronically

challenged brain!

My HP p6320y desktop came w/a upgraded mother-board MSI 785GM-E51 (FX) military class II. It has DDR3 w/4 DIMM slots. According to the manual,  I can use it in "dual-channel" mode. What are the pros and cons between DDR2 and DDR3,

& single or dual channel?

Right now,  it has two 4GB memory modules installed in the 2 first slots (DIMM 1 & 2)

The manual specifies to be sure not to interchange DDR2 & DDR3.  Hence,  if I want to max out my ram, & run it in dual channel mode. I need to fill all 4 DIMM slots w/4GB DDR3 memory modules for a total= 16GB RAM.

Would running my M/board in dual channel mode w/16GB max. RAM make my system perform substantially faster/visibly better? Or could I use the cost of 2 xtra memory modules in a different way to give me a clearly observable bump in performance?

While were on boosting performance, would upgrading my current CPU (quad core AM3 phenom 2.7Ghz) to something above 3.0Ghz, be worth the effort & produce a observable bump in speed?  Or would doing both be over-killing the  M/board's potential?

Finally, the manual explains how to overclock my FSB in 3 incremental stages: 10%, 15%, 20%. Is it truly a hi-risk to ovr./clk. in comparison to the increase gained? Even on the low setting-10%? Would an extra fan counter the heat rise, thus allowing

a full life span?

Thanks kindly for any advice,  Alan 

 

 

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