I thought the same thing...at first. If he's not playing games or watching movies on his setup, only using emacs and a terminal, what benefit would the newer h

I thought the same thing...at first. If he's not playing games or watching movies on his setup, only using emacs and a terminal, what benefit would the newer hardware get him? He does want an SSD. That is a definite improvement, in general and especially when you are compiling. Most of my computer upgrades are driven by "visual" stuff. Movies (HTPC), games (desktop/laptop) and Visual Studio/Eclipse (desktop at home and work).