I currently am running a Intel 915 board with a LGA 775 Pentium 4 HT @ 3.0ghz, along with 1gb (4 x 256mb DDR2 3200). I recently purchased a new case, new p35 motherboard, and 2gb of DDR2 800 ram. Over the course of this upgrade, Nehalem always came to mind. Would it be wise to continue this upgrade and eventually make the move to a Penryn core, or should I just return everything that I just bought and wait a year for mid range Nehalem chips? Ideas?

Keep the build. Nehalm won't be affordable until mid next year or later.

Just get a cpu for the p35 board. It will be a huge improvement and not very expensive.

Buy now unless new tech is literally around the corner, which nehalem isn't. There's always going to be something better.

I had a very similar pc as yours. P4 3G, 945G chipset, 2G RAM, etc.

Last month i took the plunge and built (see sig below). I could not be happier.

The thing i would do differently if i were building now, would be to keep my old video card or get a temp card and wait on the ATI 48xx cards to come out this month. If you are keeping it affordable, get a nvidia 8800gt. They are real cheap now.

I love the e7200 core 2 duo, especially at $130. Your p35 and a e7200 will make you very happy.

If you are gonna wait 2 years, then go for Nehalem... it may even be possible to get one for reasonable sum of money by then...
If you need new computer now, the waiting is gonna be too long.

gotta agree with 50bmg. you've no reason not to have an e7200, if you've already got the board...
nehalem uses a different socket, keep this in mind. plus, mainstream parts don't come out right away...and we're still trying to figure out if they'll be oc locked or not...

build with e7200, push her up to around 3.4ghz, and stay frosty! nehalem isn't just around the corner...

u dont have a sig

OFcourse he hast.... as this is just..... electromagnetic distortion?? Fanta??
---------------
gigabyte GA-EX38-DS4|Intel C2D e7200 at 3.8GHz| 2X Visiontek ATI 3870 800-2340 512M|2x2G Patriot PC6400 DDR2 800MHz 5-5-5-12|250G Seagate SATA150 HD|Golden Orb 2|2x80mm Ultra case fans|Coolmaster 40mm NB fan|DVD RW|CD-ROM|BFG Tech 800w 4x12V-20A|

Its 300 bucks for the mainstream Nehalem, which will likely come next year. The enthusiasts grade Nehalem scheduled to release this Q4 will cost anywhere around 600USD to 1000USD.

^ given that the QX 9650 lauched at $1000 and nothing AMD could get close and also given that the gap is now wider I'm saying over $1000...

Thanks guys . $300 ain't bad for this upgrade. Still have not got around to ordering a dual core cpu, but I may near the end of this year.

If you're gonna wait, the sweet spot for the Wolfdale processors will be in about 3-4 weeks when Intel slashes their prices. Don't wait until the end of the year for Wolfdales.

I am on a limited budget really, so after this $300 upgrade, I don't have much choice but to wait for the CPU upgrade. Which is why I was considering just going back to my original 915 board in my Dell Dimension 4700 until Nehalem.

Get a E21*0 cpu for 60-70 bucks and overclock it.

Even when Nehalem come out..The price will be high and might be buggy..same with the X58 boards...Intel launch the G45 chipset and I haven't seen any Asus board with it (I want Asus because the ExpressGate)..

If u look at Intel CPU line up it change all the time..I remember paying big buch (~ $300CAD) for the E6400, and not long later a better version come out with 4MB cache...Now with $300CAD I can get a Q9300 which is a Quad-core w/ 45nm technology...so there always something better coming out and technology is always changing..

Buy a E7200 and it should last u a while, and see how the Nahalem situation unfold..

Yeah, I have had this machine for about 4 years now, so it is time for an upgrade. I will look for the price slash on the E8400s and pick one of those up. should last me another year or so, maybe more.

Who knows, maybe with the nehalem release, C2E will be pretty affordable.