— I can't believe how long this thing has lasted me (build is 7 years old, and I don't think it was just released then). Along the way, having 16GB RAM and component upgrades (GPU currently a 970, added some SSDs) have kept it useful. It's definitely time to upgrade, as it's starting to struggle. Finally. Now. In 2018. Of note: one thing that has kept it going so long is (carefully!!) vacuuming out its heatsink, removing all the crap accumulated between the vanes (which act as an insulator). It's also in a dust-filtered case. All in all, I've gotten my money's worth and then some out of this chip.

— Horribly disappointing. The multi-core gains over the 8700K are unimpressive, minimal - and for it you sacrifice a huge amount of more basic performance. If their target market was content creators, they've failed. Anyone who doesn't have a dedicated production machine - freelancers and other small-business creators - will have one mutlipurpose machine. This chip's the same price as the 8700K so there's not even the advantage of saving your budget. For these piddly multi-core gains, which will make rendering and production *slightly* faster, you have a slower desktop, gaming machine, everything else. Ugh. Fail.