2500k and an SSD has been ground breaking for me...

[Vdubchaos]

Going from E8400 to 2500k wasn't that big of a difference at all.

In games like BC2 and BF3 only. Games that I hardly ever play anymore.

Haven't gotten SSD yet as I simply cannot justify the cost for faster load times (which is something I really don't mind waiting extra 5-10 sec for).

Due to Gaming industry being the way it is....I don't see myself upgrading for MANY years to come.

 

[Idontcare]

Going from E8400 to 2500k wasn't that big of a difference at all.

In games like BC2 and BF3 only. Games that I hardly ever play anymore.

Haven't gotten SSD yet as I simply cannot justify the cost for faster load times (which is something I really don't mind waiting extra 5-10 sec for).

Due to Gaming industry being the way it is....I don't see myself upgrading for MANY years to come.

Prices have really come. I just picked up a 120GB Drive, plenty for the OS and Apps drive, for a paltry $70 shipped.

I wouldn't waste your time buying anything smaller than a 120GB drive (I bought a 32GB drive and it really is too tiny to be of much good), but prices have crashed to ~$0.5/GB and getting an large enough SSD is very doable now.

 

[blastingcap]

Prices have really come.

SSD price drops have been orgasmic for me, too. I have 938GB of SSDs at this point, the majority of which I bought in the last few months so my average cost is now below $1/GB. I don't have a problem... I can stop at any time.... That's what I keep telling myself.

 

[Idontcare]

SSD price drops have been orgasmic for me, too. I have 938GB of SSDs at this point, the majority of which I bought in the last few months so my average cost is now below $1/GB. I don't have a problem... I can stop at any time.... That's what I keep telling myself.

LOL, I know what you mean Originally I was happy to just have my 140GB G2. Then I splurged and got a 240GB V3. Then I bought the 32GB worthless wonder. Then prices collapsed so I replaced the 32GB SSD with a 120GB V2. Then I bought another 240GB V3 on sale to upgrade a spindle computer. Then my wife used my laptop and was super jealous so I bought a 256GB Samsung 830 to put into her work laptop.

Once prices got <$1/GB it was pretty hard to ignore those Newegg deals

 

[digiram]

Yap, I agree.. nothing like it. Sandy+SSD has been quite a treat.

 

[djnsmith7]

I too went from C2D E8400 to 2600k with SSD. The difference was the biggest i've ever had in an upgrade that I can remember. Pretty ridiculous fast from what I had.

This was the upgrade path for me as well. I was skeptical about SSD's for a while, even with the data that was available. IMO, It's one of those things you have to experience first hand to really go all in.

My CII R1 rig is significantly faster than the E8400 / 7200 RPM PD / Vista setup I had before.

 

[Kenmitch]

Yeah I'd really like a 3770k but all the racket about it causing a fusion reaction in my computer does give me pause. Let me explain, as you can see from my sig I have mild overclock on my 2500k. My Noctua case and cpu fan are dialed so far back that my rig is for all intents and purposes silent. And I really like it that way. In addition, even under full load it'll barely break 60F.

If I go with the 3770k and keep my current cooler (I can use it with Ivy right?) to keep similar temps what type of an overclock can I expect? I'd be happy with 4GHz at stock volts actually.

Shooting for 4ghz I wouldn't think you'd have to worry about temps at all. Might even be able to get to your current overclock with similar temps dependant on vcore required....Luck of the draw!

 

[Hulk]

I think you mean 60°C, if not message me with how much you want for that cooler

Yes of course 60C!

 

[Hulk]

When SSD's were really expensive I told myself "I don't need one of those, I'm plenty happy with my hard drives, those things are going to fail, how much faster can they really be in actual use?"

Well after using them for a year of SSD use I simply can't go back to a mechanical drive. Let me try and quantify exactly why I'm so nuts for them.

1. Loading applications and boot time. Boot time isn't a big deal but loading apps is. Word and Excel load instantaneously. Coreldraw, Presonus Studio One, Photoshop Elements, Vegas Pro 10, Microsoft Expression all used to take from 5 to 25 seconds to load with all the plug-ins and whatnot. Now the longest load I have might take 3 or 4 seconds and it's funny to watch everything load light lightning.

2. Completely silent and the drive and you never wait for it to spin up.

3. SSD to SSD transfers are blazingly fast.

4. Never have to defragment.

5. Better multitasking. ie a couple programs can be accessing the SSD at the same time and everything just keeps moving along seamlessly.

6. Less power usage and heat. Always a good thing.

 

[tweakboy]

Well ya, no kidding. That is a huge leap from 2006 to 2012.

Nice going and smart move getting a SSD as your OS drive.

Im sure you were blown away. congratz!!!

 

[aj654987]

I have an "old" Dell 640m laptop with a C2D at 2GHz. I was seriously ready to get a new thin and light one but I figured I'd pop in the old Intel 320 from my desktop. Wow, a trans-formative change to say the least. Apps pop open almost like my desktop. Sure it's a little thicker and heavier than what you can get today and the processor isn't the latest and greatest but I honestly can't justify getting rid of it when it performs this well. Plus it has a pretty darn good 1440x900 display. It only has 2GB RAM max so I'm staying with XP but for what I use it for that really isn't a hindrance.

Thats like what I got, an older Thinkpad T500 C2D. I was in need of a laptop but couldnt stand all of the glossy low resolution displays and cheap keyboards of the laptops in stores. So I got the thinkpad on ebay for $300 and upgraded it with 8 gigs and an SSD and its very fast and more responsive than a stock PC from the store for the same price, plus I have a decent screen resolution.

 

[xx0xx]

I'm very excited about moving to Ivy Bridge from Core2Quad... the performance difference seems to be quite significant, which is awesome. C2Q was great for its time (and is still kickin', especially when overclocked), but it's just so many revisions/sockets behind now.

It's time for an upgrade (once I can sell something to cover the upgrade cost). Though, I have to say, I only need CPU/Ram/Mobo and I can get that for $350ish which is a very cost-effective upgrade in performance.

Also considering Samsung 830/840s for my Macbook and Windows Desktop. Might as well make everything lightning fast while I'm at it, right?

 

[Barfo]

I too went from C2D E8400 to 2600k with SSD. The difference was the biggest i've ever had in an upgrade that I can remember. Pretty ridiculous fast from what I had.

Sweet, I just ordered my 3570K to upgrade from my non OCed E8400, can't wait to have it set up and running.

 

[undefinedArray]

I cant wait til i upgrade my old harddrive to a new ssd. Using an old 5400rpm sata ii, and speeds at 70mb/s can be a real pain, espically when i have the i7 2600 oc'd to 3.8ghz. The harddrive has been a major bottleneck to my system, the ssd im looking at right now will massively increase the speeds. (Sata iii, 530 read, 340 write, 75,000 iops) along with the ssd, i got my cpu overclocked to 3.8, and ram at 1600 mhz (wont be overclocking ram) i will have hellva fast computer