Ricky, I can't speak for Matt, but I THINK he was talking about how fast the Processor is in your computer. 2ghz is going to be faster than 1ghz and so on. If you have the money and want a really fast machine, consider the new i7 laptops. Load times are super low. The faster Real Tracks/Real Drums load, the more you get done.

By "Faster Drive Throughput, I think Matt was talking about drive speed and type. Since you would want a drive with "fast" specs (low seek time, etc) you should look for a Hard Drive that has 7,200rpm. Why???.......because the drive is able to access data at a much faster rate. The down side is that you will need to use an external power supply. The other thing you should look for is a large cache buffer. Although 16mb is ok, 32mb is much better.

Again, IF you have the cash, you should look into getting a Solid State HD. These units are super fast, don't produce heat, and are now claiming 25-30 year data security specs. In fact, the OCX Vertex series has a 250mb per second read rate, 160-200mb per second write rate, and 25 year data cycle before failure. Even the fastest eSATA 10,000rpm units don't come close to that. Check out the Youtube videos of Laptops booting up with the latest SS HDs. Amazing. The caveat is the price. The 60GB Vertex is $200. I'm sure this will come down in time.

Last, you can wait to see about USB 3, try to get a Belkan TI FW chipset Express card, or change your interface. I just ordered the Echo Indigo Express card Interface, because all the reports I have are of very low latency, great drivers and converters. The down side is you can't record as there is no Mic input.
What I bought last month was the M-Audio Fast Track II USB. Very nice unit, I have no real complaints, works well with Windows 7. For $120, it's well worth the money!!!

Good luck, let us know which direction you are going and how things work out!
Ed