"So I don't think hardware improvements are an issue [...] dropping compile time and allowing more programs open at once"
for you. I doubt that "compiles much faster" or "allows more programs open at a time" would be marketing slogans that sell zillions of PCs. 'Normal' users run a web browser, maybe an email program, and Wordpad (I am not even sure that is an exaggeration, nowadays)
Also, about the SSD: in my limited experience, the only thing it really speeds up is boot time (shutdown of my iMac now takes ages, relatively speaking). Launching programs probably doubles in speed, too, but it already was fast enough for me. If you are compiling C/C++ or launching a VM zillions of times a day the difference will be huge, too, but [see above]
for you. I doubt that "compiles much faster" or "allows more programs open at a time" would be marketing slogans that sell zillions of PCs. 'Normal' users run a web browser, maybe an email program, and Wordpad (I am not even sure that is an exaggeration, nowadays)
Also, about the SSD: in my limited experience, the only thing it really speeds up is boot time (shutdown of my iMac now takes ages, relatively speaking). Launching programs probably doubles in speed, too, but it already was fast enough for me. If you are compiling C/C++ or launching a VM zillions of times a day the difference will be huge, too, but [see above]