This kind of change can make a huge difference for two big reasons: 1. Fewer RTT means lower page load times, which are outlined above. Users notice this stuff

This kind of change can make a huge difference for two big reasons: 1. Fewer RTT means lower page load times, which are outlined above. Users notice this stuff, esp. when you have a keepalives off, and each little chunk of ajax/css/js/img requires this to all happen over and over again. 2. Shorter time from open to close on the http socket connection means fewer connections open; if you are running Apache prefork, this makes a big difference to your memory footprint. p.s. Use Nginx ;)