Is it worth upgrading RAM?

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Not in terms of amount of RAM, I mean upgrading to RAM with a higher clockspeed and better timings. I've read that timings don't make any significant difference, but haven't seen any comparisons of higher and lower clocked RAM. I ask because I have 2GB of RAM in my system which is DDR2 PC2-5300 and recently upgraded my motherboard to one that can support PC2-8500. Will I notice any differences, and if so in what sorts of applications? General use, video converting, gaming, multitasking, etc.

This is my system currently:

Gigabyte DS3L-P35 motherboard w/ 1333 FSB
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 @ 3.0GHz
2 GB DDR2 PC2 5300 (1x1GB in dual channel configuration)
Gigabyte 8800GT video card

The intel core 2 chips like high bandwidth rather then tight memory timings, I upgraded from pc2 6400 to pc2 8500 and the main difference I notced was when using alt+tab from a game to do something in windows, it just happened a lot quicker. I think it would be worth it for you to do the upgrade if you are a gamer because all of the other components of your computer are good and your memory is holding you back. also you might be able to overclock your CPU more if the memory can reach higher a frequency.

3.0 GHz? That's pretty darn powerful!

It all depends on where the bottleneck is in the system (and where the bottleneck is can even change based on the application being run) In your case, 2 gigs is alot of memory (although I've never run an E8400 so I'm not entirely sure).

If you have money to burn, get one of these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814121217
Since your existing graphics card is PCI-e 2.0, it should be able to fit in your system...

I've already got a NVIDIA 8800GT, which is a bit more powerful that the HD 3870.

Ah, one of those "8800 is almighty god" fans...

My search for "gigabyte 8800 gt" came up with 4 returns, so you probably have one of these 4:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814125088
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814125089
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 814125077R
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 814125081R

Upon a more through look-through, they're all close enough that I would only upgrade to the 3870 if i had just won the lottery (i.e. they're that close that any speed increases would be negligible, so the money is better spent elsewhere). Given that you already have an E8400 (the best intel chip out currently, as there are still no applications to date written to take advantage of 4 cores that I know of), then I guess you could upgrade your ram if you wanted to max out Crysis or Supreme Commander, but as of now, I would say it's not really worth spending money at this time. Save it up for a future build, or a rainy day...

One more point to make: I have a 2-year old build with an X800 and an athlon 64 3200+ single core procesor and 1 gig of ddr1 ram, and it still plays most of the games I have except supreme commander quite well (although I don't own crysis or the newest quake, and have no interest in either...) I guess what I'm trying to say is that you don't have to constantly be cutting edge unless it's a status symbol for you (nothing wrong with that either, computers are the cars of most nerd circles)...

PS: Don't get the nvidia propaganda into your head that 8800 is the best series out there, because it's not...

I was asking because I recently upgraded the motherboard, CPU and graphics card and the only thing I didn't swap around was the RAM. If the slower RAM isn't bottlenecking the newer components then it doesn't bother me, I just want to make sure that if I'm paying a fair bit to get the machine up to date then I'm not limiting the gains from getting that hardware by keeping older components as well.

ddr 2 prices are dropping now because of ddr3, at least thats what its like in the uk. I am sure that PC2-5300 is not a huge bottleneck, there does not seem to be many reliable ways to find out what difference it would make to upgrade to pc2 8500, If it was me I would upgrade because the pc2 5300 is the weakest link of your main components. When I upgraded my memory things just felt some how better in games, I never really checked fps or did any benchmarks. It just depends whats right for you

ToadOfSteel, there is nothing wrong with the 8800gt it beats the performance of the 3870 hands down, I have tested the 3870 and its not a bad card but almost all of the benchmarks say the 8800gt is better... I have a nvidia 8800 series card and I am happy with it, I dont see why you have to be condescending towards those who have a nvidia card. everyone goes for what is best for themselves, I think both companies are great, I have a lot of nvidia and ati cards.

I can't exactly condescend when my card is 2 generations behind the latest one... but nvidia left a bad taste in my mouth when a 6000 series I had melted in my computer. I replaced it with an X800 that not only ran better in my system, but hasn't melted or shown any kind of problem in it's 2 and a half years of operation...

Since then, I refuse to do any business with nvidia, and discourage anyone else I can from doing so as well...