Upgrade from 1 Gig PC2700 to 1 Gig Dual Channel PC3200??

[IntrepidXC]

My current system configuration is as follows:

P4 2.53
Asus P4S800D-X Motherboard
1 Gig single channel PC2700
1 36 Gig WD Raptor
1 120 Gig WD
ATI X850XT 256 MB

My question is would it be worth it to upgrade my ram from the current 1 Gig of single channel PC2700 to the dual channel PC3200? I can currently get a nice dual channel setup from Patriot for about $70 and I'm just wondering if the gain is worth the money. My ram timings are below.

CAS Latency (tCL) : 2.5 clocks @133 MHz, 2.5 clocks @166 MHz
RAS to CAS (tRCD) : 3 clocks @133 MHz, 3 clocks @166 MHz
RAS Precharge (tRP) : 3 clocks @133 MHz, 3 clocks @166 MHz
Cycle Time (tRAS) : 7 clocks @133 MHz, 7 clocks @166 MHz

 

[mpjesse]

Eh... not really. The P4 2.53 runs on a 533mhz FSB. PC3200 (DDR400) was designed to run on 800mhz FSB's. PC2700 (DDR333) memory is ideal for you FSB 'cause the processor and memory are sync'd.

If you went up to DDR400 the memory would only run at DDR333 speeds anyways; and there's no way around that. The only benefit would be that fact that you have dual channel, which in and of itself will not lead to any noticable performance gains.

My suggestion would be to save another $100 and upgrade to a P4 3.2Ghz CPU w/ a 800Mhz FSB. They currently go for about $189.

-mpjesse