Did I get Ripped off? Should I upgrade?

If your current system is getting the job done, you don't really need to upgrade. Plus you can always swap processor to a quad if you really need the extra cores.

No and yes....

No, as long as you did not pay to much for your system it will work nicely.
Fast at stock and a hell of an overclocker.

Yes for the DDR2 1200 RAM.
Unless you are planning on overclocking past a 450Mhz FSB, the massively cheaper DDR2 800 4-4-4-x is all you will ever need.

I would wait until at least Q3/Q4 '09 before upgrading to Nehalem.
Let the prices come down and wait for the second stepping to stamp out any production bugs.
My guess has entry level Nehalem CPU's running in the $300 area and being hard as hell to get.
For a motherboard I would guess $200-250.

Unless you want to pay double for DDR3 @ 1333 then you should not upgrade. I just got a e8400 with a 775x chipset and im happy. The new processors are only like 30% faster ne way. Why upgrade? E8400 @3.6 will work with a 4870x2 and not bottleneck

Nehalem will require triple channel DDR3 1600, no? I would bet that 3x 1G (3G total) will be the minimum you would want, which will cost around $300 USD, given that a 2GB (2 x 1GB) package is around $200 now.

Nahelem is going to be expen$ive, until DDR3 prices drop.

it definitely is overpriced, considering you can get the E7200 for $125 CAD (http://www.infonec.com/site/main.php?module=detail&id=353667), the P5Q Mobo for $132 CAD (http://www.infonec.com/site/main.php?module=detail&id=353851).

Riped off, no.
Over priced, yes.

I am guessing you got all of your parts from a brick and mortar shop?
They have to cover paying for their location and for their people to order the parts from an online supplier for you.
You defiantly could have gotten it cheaper ordering online yourself but that sounds about right for someone else ordering it for you.

I got most of the parts from Canada Computers (not CPU). I did not order this online. The problem is at that point, E7200 prices did not drop it was around $150 + tax so I thought I'd order from ebay (which saves me tax). As for the Rams, I'm hoping to get a 30 dollar rebate from OCZ so hmm.. let me see... about 180 for the rams. But then again, I guess the rams are still over priced

The problem is it's Canada and so there aren't that many competition around for the prices. I also have to take account that if I order off ebay or something then there's a chance where customs will tax me like crazy (happened to my CPU). So... yeah.. I don't have much options.

next time check out

ncix.com
directcanada.com
tdDirect.ca

do some shopping around, you can find some decent deals in canada if you look carefully. I use this site for price comparisons http://hardwarecanucks.pricecanada.com/

thanks for the links. I didn't know what hardware to choose. I'm assuming that even if I was to get a QX9700 right now the 1200 would be able to push it's way to 1600 fsb am I correct? lol... I didn't realize that it would overkill that much.

i think your a bit confused about fsbram ratio


for a qx9700, you only need ddr2 800, this is if you weren't OC'ing

ddr=double data rate, 800x2=1600mhz=qx9700fsb which is 1600... if you were gonna OC a qx9700, 1066mhz of ram would be smarter to pick, 1200 is never really needed

Erm...
Kinda true but not quite.

Yes DDR is Double Data Rate but it is from the base speed of the FSB, not the other way around.
For example, at 1600FSB your Front Side Bus is running at 400Mhz Quad Data Rate, ergo the 1600FSB.
Your RAM will be running at Double Data Rate of the 400Mhz, ergo DDR2 800.

With this in mind, DDR2 800 RAM is good without overclocking to 400Mhz or 1600FSB.
DDR2 1066 RAM is good with out overclocking to 533Mhz or 2132FSB and your DDR2 1200 is good up to 600Mhz FSB or 2400FSB.

Also, keep in mind that running your RAM at faster Mhz requires higher latency which negates the added performance of the higher frequency.
As such, the sweet spot for RAM right now is DDR2 800 with 4-4-4-x timings.

Ummmmmmmm..because thats what X58 motherboards will use? The power of Three (as in 3)! channels.
Have you found a X58 motherboard that will support DDR3 1600?
Psssst! Nehalem will NOT have a FSB.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/i [...] ,5829.html
Memory support will come in the form of DD3 with support for 800MHz, 1066MHz and 1333MHz frequencies initially. Total bandwidth will be 32GB/sec. with support for up to 24GB of total system memory initially. X58 motherboards will provide up to 6 slots of memory but will require that the first slot (DIMM0) be populated.

http://www.nehalemnews.com/2008/04/nehalem-faq.html

Well, I read this: http://www.tomshardware.com/news/i [...] ,5854.html
Where they used Crucial Ballistix DDR3-1600 1GBx2 for their testing, and I presumed that anyone wanting the latest and greatest would want to use the fastest memory for it (not counting overclocking).

Thanks for the other links tho. It will be interesting to see how Nehalem performs with the other memory speeds.