I'm sure this has been done before, but not recently, AFAIK. This could be helpful for those of us thinking about getting a new computer.

1. How much time does your game take to load?
2. How much CC are you using?
3. What are your specs?

My game loads in about a minute - this is the fastest I've ever had! My old computer would take 10-15 min.
I have 8 GB of CC and I use an MSI gaming laptop, one of the more affordable gaming laptops if anyone's interested. My old laptop was an MSI gaming laptop too and worked beautifully for 8+ years, until it didn't. My bf is a comp sci guy and thinks he can fix it though, so it might not be totally dead.
CPU speed is 2.60 GHz, 16 GB of RAM, and my graphics card is NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 on windows 10 (I know nothing about computers, so sorry if the way I worded/phrased it doesn't make sense).

1. 6 minutes after merging.
2. 6.97 GB after compressorizing.
3. 4Ghz AMD FX8350, 24Gb DDR3 @1333Mhz, 4GB nVidia Geforce GTX 1050Ti, 3TB 7200RPM HDD, Windows 8.1

The HDD is the main thing you'll want to upgrade to improve load times, for example my HDD has average of 20MB/sec transfer rate where as an SSD has avg of 500Mb/sec. I'm going to get an 1TB SSD soon which will be used mainly for gaming applications. I only use my PC for work and older and/or less demanding games so this old build has been doing its job fine otherwise.

1. 10 minutes
2. Approximately 12 GB (compressed)
3. AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1045T Processor (6 CPUs), ~2.7GHz, NVIDIA Quadro FX 4600, Memory: 8192MB RAM, Windows 7

This is the best speed and computer I've ever had. Custom built for the game at my request.

Another point that should be made:

4. This is with all the EP's and SP's.

1. About 12 minutes
2. 13.8 Gigs
3. Win 7 64 bit, Intel 3.80Ghts 4 cores, 32 RAM, 1000watt power supply, C drive and D drive SSD's, NVIDEA GeForce 1050Ti

#1

About 2 minutes from double-clicking a BAT file that tells the computer to execute the game in low priority in Task Manager, then waiting for a windowed screen to open, then clicking a neighborhood, loading the neighborhood, then clicking a property with lots of stuff on it, waiting for it to load, and then starting in live mode.

#2

320 MB for the Downloads folder, although I suspect my Movies folder is contributing to the long load time (it's currently at 18.8 GB).

#3

OS: Windows 10 Enterprise Pro
CPU: Intel Core i7-7700K @ 4.20GHz (8 CPUs), LGA 1151
MEMORY: Corsair Vengence LED, DDR4, 2 sticks of 8 GB, 3.20 GHz each
GRAPHICS CARD: nVidia GeForce GTX 1080, 4 GB Video Ram
STORAGE: Samsung, 960 EVO M.2, NVMe SSD, 500GB
MOTHERBOARD: MSI Tomahawk Z270
POWER SUPPLY: Corsair CS650M, 650 watt total power
RESOLUTION: 2560 x 1440 pixels (windowed mode running at 2552 x 1396 pixels)

I have the NVIDIA Control Panel software override settings in my game for anti-aliasing and texture filtering.

1.It ususally takes up to 2 minutes depending on if my hard drive needs defagmenting.
2.I've got tons of CC and not fully sure of exactly how much because I've installed tons more new stuff recently for an apocalypse challenge.
3.Windows 7 64 bit intel core i5 2.5 ghtz on each core and it can get faster in gaming mode.I've got a Radeon 1ghtz dedicated graphics card as well as the intel one for light duties and my laptop is about 8 years old and still runs almost like new.
It's running TS2 UC and I've already got my BACC active and am about to start setting up a town for my apocalypse challenge.

1: about, or roughly, 4-8 minutes, usually the startup screen freezes a few times when loading, but it's pretty fast if I exit and go back in during cc testing. I also edited out the intro movie because I got tired of skipping it

2: roughly 4.60GB of cc, I'm slowly chipping away at my hair folder still to update some colors + reduce the file size by shrinking the .pngs from 1024x1024 to 512x512, so currently it's around 4.02GB~. Everything is compressed and Bodyshop content is bundled, along with walls and flooring

3:

OS: Windows 10 Home 64-bit
Processor: AMD 1st Generation Ryzen 5 @ 3.2 gHz
Processor Model: Ryzen 5 1400
Memory: 8GB DDR4 2400MHz
Storage: 1TB Mechanical Hard Drive (64MB Cache) 7200 RPM SATA
Graphics Card: AMD Radeon RX 570

3 minutes to neighbourhood selection, 30 seconds to load the hood, 4 minutes to load a household.
27.4 GB compressed and bundled as much as I can
Windows 7 Intel TM i5-3470
8GB RAM
AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series

The important thing to note IMO is that my game and My Documents folder is on an SSD. That thing goes like the wind.

1. It depends what you consider to be "loading times". Is it the time after the first loading screens end and you are able to select a lot to play? Or is it the time that it takes before you can enter a lot and play it? I consider my loading time to be the time it takes before my game is playable. And I do more at start-up than just load the game. I go through the loading screens, then I enter CAS and randomly generate some number of Sims (to avoid the first-born syndrome), then cancel and return to the main screen, then select a lot to play. When that lot loads, I consider my game "loaded". Doing things this way also prevents any lag when buying clothes or changing a Sim's appearance the first time. So from clicking the shortcut to playing my first lot, takes me in the neighborhood of 40-45 minutes.

2. I have more than 20 GB of custom content.

3. (Windows Experience Index of 5.9) on a desktop computer
Operating System: Win 7 Service Pack 1 - 64 bit
Processors: Intel i7 @ 3.2 GHz
Memory: 16 GB
Graphics card: Nvidia GeForce GT 440 with 4 GB of total available graphics memory supporting dual monitors
Game level: Sims2 Ultimate Collection

1. How much time does your game take to load?
About 15-16 minutes from clicking on The Sims 2 in the Start Menu to actually being in a lot ready to play. But it wasn't an easy question to answer, because I usually go away and do other things while the game is loading. Like HobbesED I always load CAS and generate a few Sims to avoid the so-called First-Born Syndrome. I think this is important because it affects all Sims generated in a session (e.g. NPCs), not just new-born babies. Like HobbesED says, it also speeds things up when they go out to but new clothes (which my Sims do far more often than they have babies.

There are things I could do to speed things up, like stop using the Launcher, and not let the video play to the end, but I suppose the launcher and the video are part of my "ritual" for starting up the game. I like the "plinky-plonk" loading music -- it tells me that fun times are coming up. I suppose I'm generally not in a hurry. My playstyle is generally unhurried, and my loading procedure matches it. If I'm testing something, or alternating between the game and CAS to make changes, I might abort the load video and forego CAS, but for ordinary play sessions I take my time.

2. How much CC are you using?
1.68 GB, 5,806 Files, 107 Folders at the last count.

3. What are your specs?
Computer: Packard Bell Dot S Netbook, used with external monitor, mouse and keyboard as a desktop replacement.
OS: Windows 7 Starter 32-bit, SP 1
Processor: Intel Atom(TM) CPU N450 1.67 GHz
Installed Memory: 2GB RAM
Storage: 300 GB Hard Drive (Seagate?
Graphics Adapter: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3150 (Onboard) (Integrated)
Game Level: EPs up to OFB, plus the Celebration! SP.

I suspect I have the lowest specs of any frequent poster here. EllaCharmed told me long ago that my computer wasn't up to playing TS2, but by that time I was already hopelessly addicted! Now that I've been playing for over seven years, I seem to have got away with it, but I do have to stick to low resolution graphics and the first three EPs.

My Documents folder, including The Sims 2 downloads and neighborhoods, is on the C drive, which is the OS drive, and is an M.2 NVME. My game folder is on the D drive, which is a large mechanical hard drive.

My in-game loading times aren't bad, but since moving to a Windows 10 PC, the launch time has been atrocious. I put the Apartment Life DVD-ROM into the slim BD-RE drive. It's the only size of optical drive that will fit into the bay. It looks like it's made for a laptop instead of a desktop. Thanks, Dell. Then I double click the desktop icon and wait about 30 seconds for the Play button to pop up. I click Play. The disc spins up, the game begins to load, the screen goes black for a few seconds and I'm back to the desktop with a blank, nameless icon on the taskbar. The disc stops. Then it appears to do nothing, while the game is quietly, secretly, and very slowly loading into RAM. I know this because I watched it in Task Manager. This part of the process takes a whole FOUR minutes almost exactly, and can't be interrupted for any reason (multitasking is NOT an option here). Then the game launches, and everything is perfectly normal from there. In fact, the logo screen before you get to neighborhood selection is pretty fast. I did have to use the Graphics Rules Maker and download a mod to fix the shadows.

The reason I went into so much detail is because I can't figure out what's causing the hangup at launch. Is it because the game and the Documents are on two different drives? Is it the TYPE of drives? Is my optical drive slow? It's all very puzzling. And I'm not using very much CC at all. Launch times were like this even when I was testing the empty base game.

1. How much time does your game take to load? 3 min
2. How much CC are you using? 12,2 GB
3. What are your specs?
Win 10 Pro
Intel i7 4790K
32 GB RAM
Nvidia GTX 970
SSD

1. 30-40 mins to Main Menu 5-7 mins to good 1-3 min lot load. minimum of ~36 mins from click to lot more often an hour instead.
2. 5.8GB uncompressed
3. Toshiba Satellite L50D-C
Operating System: Windows 10
Processor: AMD A-series A6-7310, 2GHZ Quad core
Storage: 1TB HDD
Graphics card: Dedicated Radeon R5 M330

So far on of the worst loading times if not the worst.

@Neverwinter_Knight77 This isn't something I know much about, but I'm wondering if it might have something to do with SecuROM. I understand Microsoft withdrew support for SecuROM with Windows 10, and I'm pretty sure SecuROM gets invoked at that stage, when the load process is checking that you have a valid disk in the drive. Also you and I may be the only people here still using the Launcher. I think most people here bypass the Launcher to get a faster start-up.

I can't get over people with CC whose game only takes 2-3 minutes. O_O Mine only loads that fast with no CC.

I forgot all about the launcher and was confused about the Play button the other poster mentioned having to click.

Thanks for mentioning this. My laptop stopped working last night, and if it can't be fixed, I'm going to be in the market for a new one a bit sooner than I'd previously anticipated.

1. Less than 5 minutes for the game to load up, depending on the hood it can take 5+ minutes, the newer the hood the quicker the loading.
2. 2-3GB currently. I have multiple CC folders for different saves.
3. Windows 10 Pro,
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2500K CPU @ 3.30GHz,
16GB RAM,
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050

Launcher or not, the loading time is the same for me.

1. About 2 or 2 1/2 minutes.
2. 2.92 GB
3. Windows 10
Intel(R) Core (TM) I7-7700HQ CPU @2.80 GHz
16 GB RAM
500 GB SSD
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050

Less than 7 minutes: 4 minutes to Neighbourhood chooser, 2 minutes to the neighbourhood and less than a minute to the household.
2.5 GB
Windows 7, 64 bit, 3.2 GHz, 4 GB RAM
NVidia GeForce GT 240
(An old computer.)

1. 3 minutes to NH chooser, less than minute to load a hood.
2. currently 1,3 GB but I have several The Sims 2 folders, current one is ACR testing , not much CC hair and clothing.
3. Win 7 Ultimate 64-bit; Intel Core i3 CPU 540 @ 3,07GHz each; RAM 6 GB; NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 (no need in 4GB patch, all settings high)

Edit: Actually I was searching for especially The Sims 2 computer, so I studied all sources and threads and this was optimal the best build for The Sims 2. Though I wanted 8 GB RAM but only this one was available. I can always buy more RAM anyway but not needed yet, once played 4 days in the row without shutting down a game before it started lagging a bit.
Video card is exactly powerful enough to have all settings high and not too much powerful, so never had pink flashing.

Just tested this yesterday:
20 minutes to Hood Select screen
12 minutes to load CAS from the hood
I've apparently got 22.4 GB of uncompressed cc this morning. (That number keeps creeping up on me; a week or two ago it was 21... ) I didn't check load to a lot, though, as that can vary wildly, depending on hood and lot/family.

I guess I should consider moving my install to my SSD drive; I didn't before cuz I frequently knock the plug out, . Also I gotta finish cleaning out my folder. Half of my cc is in "testing". If I'm going to have a large DL folder, I should at least figure out if I really want the stuff.

ETA: My specs are Windows 7, Intel Core i5-4460 CPU @ 3.20ghz, 16 GB Ram, NVidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, 500 GB HDD (which is not enough for sims, apparently, as I'm always running out of space ) and 1 TB SSD. I will say that my game runs smoothly; I don't usually experience issues or long lot load times once the game is loaded. And pink flashing--which I had a really big problem with a few years back before I upgraded my ram and added an SSD drive--is non existent. So that's something.

Specs by the way:

Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
i7 8700
16 GB RAM
AMD Radeon RX 570 4GB

Loading the neighborhood selection screen after skipping the intro, is less than 20 seconds.

Just ran another test
3 mins 10 secs click to pop up
55 secs for intro movie
26 mins 18 secs to hood selection
3 mins 45 secs to load hood
4 22 secs to load lot
38 mins 33 secs to load completely