Sam_missles :
My PC recently decided to stop working, and because I'm short on cash, my friend offered me a i7-2600 workstation PC for around 120$. Knowing the fact that the CPU is an 1155 socket worries me, since none of the newer CPUs made by Intel use that socket. Can anyone give me a good answer about how the socket will affect me in the future?
In terms of upgrades, your socket & RAM are technically "obsolete" -- as you & others mentioned, they stopped making Socket LGA 1155 CPUs some time ago, & the new Intel & AMD chips are only using DDR4 instead of DDR3 RAM.
That being said, that doesn't mean there's not some life left in that platform. As @faalin pointed out, there hasn't been a whole lot of improvement in the performance of Intel CPUs over the past 5-7 years. We're talking maybe 5-10% improvement tops per generation...& I strongly suspect that has more to do with the increases in stock speeds than anything else.
The limitations you're going to run into have to do more with how your typical "workstation" PCs are designed, rather than the Intel CPUs inside them. For example, they usually have low-quality/low-wattage PSUs (because businesses usually tend to run them into the ground & buy brand-new replacements, rather than upgrading the existing machines), & usually run off of the integrated graphics (because they usually frown on their employees playing games at work). So, assuming the GPU from your old PC still works, you might have to replace the PSU in the workstation in order to use it...& that's assuming the GPU will fit inside the case. But, for about $100-150USD you could pick up a GTX 1050 (a model without PCIe power connectors) & be OK. But that's more if you plan to game long-term on it.