Eli the Computer Guy

After 3 long years wandering in the cyber desert computer users can finally rejoice that an operating system has come along to deliver us from our misery.  Windows 7 stands on the mountaintop becoming us to follow to find our salvation.  Soon we will be able to shed the torments of Vista and the baggage of XP.  Soon we shall have the benefits of a modern operating system that doesn’t have the problems of a poorly created operating system. Soon my friends… but I would argue that we should not run for Windows 7 just yet.

My argument against immediately upgrading to Windows 7 has nothing to do with the operating system itself.  All the reviews for Windows 7 have been glowing.  Many people migrated to using Windows 7 back at the first public beta test in January and have been very happy.  Everyone I talked to preferred the Windows 7 betas better then either XP or Vista.  My argument against upgrading to Windows 7 right now is about other changes happening in the computer world.

Two major hardware specifications have just been released that will improve the performance of your system more then any operating system upgrade.  USB 3.0 and SATA 3 standards have just been introduced and the hardware that incorporates them is just coming to market.  These standards along with the improvements in Solid State Hard Drives will provide huge benefits to end users.  The issue is that these standards are built into the motherboards of computers.

If you buy a computer today, that computer will never be capable of USB 3 or SATA 3.  You cannot perform an upgrade or buy a part to make it work.  So if you buy a computer right now you are guaranteeing that within 6 months you will have a computer that seems obsolete compared to the new systems. 

Many people do not realize that the main hindrance to computer performance is now hard drive speed.  Better CPUs and more RAM is always good, but at this point these upgrades provide only incremental improvements.

When SATA 3 becomes standard for hard drives this will provide a dramatic, visible, improvement.  The new standard is twice as fast as SATA 2.  SATA 3 transfers data at a blinding 6Gbps.  This speed will be evident in everything from boot time, to how quickly programs open.

USB 3 on the other hand will allow for data to be transferred to external drives at a whopping 4.8Gbps.  You will be able to transfer huge amounts of data painlessly.  These two technologies together will make life for the average computer user seem blissful when compared to the systems that they are using today.

The thing is that the first motherboards with this technology built in are coming to market today.  There are a number of motherboards in the pipelines, but only a couple are available and are not in wide use.  Within 6 months you should be able to buy systems with USB 3 and SATA 3 from any major manufacturer, but right now you can’t.

If you wait 6 months to buy a new computer with Windows 7 and get one with these new features you will glad you did.  So just like when you were a kid and really wanted the shiny new toy, you just have to be patient for a little longer.

You can take a look at a review for one of these new motherboards here: http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/10/29/new.asus.usb.30.mainboards.have.record.speeds/

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