Best RAM for current machine

[rcrmb]

My system is currently listed in my sig, and I have been running Hynix 2x512 DDR 400 Dual Channel for a year now, and the few times I have run memtest I have encountered zero errors. However, I am at the point where I am thinking of upgrade to an Athlon64 but many people tell me I should wait a while and i'm just thinking through my options.

My questions are -
a) Is this ram considered value, and if so could it be a bottleneck for performance on a P4 system?
b) Is it worth upgrading my ram to something that will also serve well in the future, and if so what's the best ram I can get right now, especially for my current P4.

Thanks a bunch.

 

[sangyup81]

The P4s are definitely memory bandwith hungry and they don't have the efficiency of the Athlon64 integrated memory controller.

If you had an Athlon64, you wouldn't need to change your memory. Changing to Athlon64 might be cheaper than getting a gig of high bandwith memory and will perform better in games and other non-multi-thread applications.

 

[rcrmb]

I'm trying to price out options right now between upgrading cpu/mobo or upgrading to a good quality RAM.

One thing that has my curiousity however is what kind of RAM would be the best for me to get, should I go that route?

 

[sangyup81]

Either OCZ VX or that Corsair 4400C25. If you go to the memory section in the anandtech reviews area, you'll see those are the two most recently reviewed memory chips. We're talking at least $250 for them.

Comparatively, if you wanted to do a CPU/Mobo upgrade,

Socket 754: DFI nf3 ($99) + Athlon64 2800 ($109) = $210
Socket 939: MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum ($142) + Athlon64 3000+ 90nm ($148) = $290

These both can overclock pretty well.

 

[ribbon13]

If you get socket 939 nF4 you can upgrade ypu CPU over to Toledo dual-core after it comes out ~this fall, if you run SMP capable programs or multi-task a lot.