FLanighan :
1. Get an i7 980x. Change the multiplier to give you 4.0GHz.
2. Get either 3x4=12GB of ram or 6x4 = 24GB of DDR3-1600 ram
3. Buy 2 (or more) Intel 160GB SSD's for RAID-0. Format your SSD' every 30-60days in order to ensure that there isn't anything bogging your system down. Build a second storage server to backup your data with and make sure it has at least 10TB of HD space.
4. If that is not enough try for a dual socket motherboard and get 2 980x's (both OC'd to 4.0GHz). That is 12 cores/24 threads. Also if 24GB of ram isn't enough you can always max out the server mobo at 144GB (make sure you have a 64-bit OS lol).
If that isn't fast enough then I don't know what to tell you.
Not recommended. Unlike HDD, SSD where down over time from writing it. Reformatting it 30-60 days and you'll wear down that thing extremely quick making it useless.
Once in a while reformatting is ok but not that frequent.
As for number 4. You cant have 2 980x's on 1 board
They only have 1 QPI link. You'll need a xeon cpu with 2 or more QPI links to combine cpu's to have 12 cores/24 threads.
http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=47916&processor=X5680&spec-codes=SLBV5
Anyways, @OP
If you have a computer with core i7 920/930 cpu, dont get rid of it. It will do you no good as for what you're wanting, there no improvement beyond what you have unless you going to go into sever hardware with apps that can use as such....
Although can you post the rest of the specs of the computer to see what can be improved and a budget so we can help you better.
I simply want a computer where I don't have to wait for opening any heavy applications, booting, etc.
Well, for the bios section of booting (were you'll see either a splash sceen of a company logo or white text saying cpu speed, system ram, ect) there nothing you can do about that. Thats just the nature of the bios.
Although when you see windows itself booting up, a very fast ssd (like a 80/160GB intel sdd) will boot windows up in as little as 10 to 15 seconds.
For heavy applications opening, same thing. Unless your apps are more ram/cpu limited, an ssd will make a world of difference on that.
SSD are much faster than HDD due to there raw speed (some cases more than twice as fast as the fastest consumer HDD) and almost 0ms access time. (due to having no moving parts)
That almost 0ms access time will give windows the extremely fast response of opening things and the raw output speed will aloud you to open large files either in a snap or just a sec or 2.
If you still find it to slow, well raid 0 two ssds together. going beyond that though will be pointless.