1) you're not the sort of person who buys a new rig every two years, and
2) a $300 PC today will give you exactly the same performance as the one you bought 5 years ago: the minimal gains you get in iron are naturally offset by minor losses in software (which is now built by people with SSDs, so good luck with your little spinning disks...)
The market is now artificially segmented to such a fine level, and moving so slowly at the top, that performance simply does not "trickle down" like it used to. Add to that the move to "power efficient" CPUs (aka: less powerful overall) and you will basically see zero gains if you stick to the bottom of the market.
Not quite "exactly" the same performance. A 20% improvement with today's stuff.
But yeah, its peanuts. A 20% improvement over five years is pathetic. I'm just calling out your hyperbole, in case others didn't see it. Apple had like a 50% improvement in a single generation of iPhones, so a 20% difference over five years is very ignorable.
SSDs and GPUs improved dramatically over the past five years. Well... more specifically... SSDs got dramatically cheaper and retained roughly the same quality. So its worth it to upgrade to SSD or to get a new Graphics Card. But Intel doesn't have any GPU offering, and their SSDs are "enterprise" (aka: overpriced). Mushkin / Crucial are better brands for consumers... even Samsung (although a bit more expensive)
1) you're not the sort of person who buys a new rig every two years, and 2) a $300 PC today will give you exactly the same performance as the one you bought 5 years ago: the minimal gains you get in iron are naturally offset by minor losses in software (which is now built by people with SSDs, so good luck with your little spinning disks...)
The market is now artificially segmented to such a fine level, and moving so slowly at the top, that performance simply does not "trickle down" like it used to. Add to that the move to "power efficient" CPUs (aka: less powerful overall) and you will basically see zero gains if you stick to the bottom of the market.