[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by hidden.platypus

@theducks: Thanks for the explanation. . .I just still don't see it. I'll buy another machine in 3 years or so and that will probably come with a SSD. So I'll see then.

You can't 'see' this. You can only feel it by using an SSD.

I actually upgraded from the fastest consumer hard drive available, the Western Digital Raptor. The SSD blows it out of this solar system, with power to spare... as I only utilize 50-60% of the SSD's capability in my older computers.

I have a similar argument with my buddy who happens to be an Apple Fanboy. Serious, serious self-described "fanboy". As in: we're not closer friends because he can't understand how I'm so stupid I can't understand that Apple is far superior to every other computer manufacturer bar none.

It's not, because of only one thing: you do stuff the Apple way, or you don't do them. That's the only argument I need for not buying an Apple computer. I want to be able to *easily* upgrade and/or repair my own computer, and I want to be able to choose my own parts. That excludes any Apple computer, and especially the latest soldered/glued together models.

And I don't disagree with him. . . I have no idea how I would go about proving him wrong. But it doesn't matter. He likes to go on and on about something called the Retina display. And he knows all the impressive stats that go along with a Retina display. But when I look at it I'm hard pressed to understand the benefits of this thing. Does his display look better than mine? You bet.

A Retina display is just a high resolution screen. Yes, Apple was the first, by a few months, sticking one of those into a phone and laptop, but there are now a gazillion phones and laptops that have such displays.

I feel the same way about the SSD. After adding extra RAM, how much faster can faster really be? You notice the difference between dial-up and DSL. But do you really notice the difference between 15MP/s downloads and 50MP/s?

If you are only downloading 50 kB files, you don't see the difference between a 50 kB/s or a 50 MB/s download capability, but if you are downloading 50 MB files, you surely will. If you only edit text files, you don't see any difference when using an SSD, but if you use large programs that would take long to start (Photoshop, GIMP, Office programs, games) you'll notice the speed improvement. The larger the programs, the more you'll notice the SSD.