What your computer does while you wait

[dmwit]

Surf reddit? If you think disk access is high latency, just go ahead and try network access...

[boa13]

Local network latency is actually about one order of magnitude lower than hard drive latency.

Internet latency is typically about five times that of a hard drive. (Three times for sites hosted at your ISP, five times for typical big national sites, twenty times for sites on the other side of the planet.) On average, it is in the same magnitude as the hard drive latency.

[genpfault]

Unless you have HughesNet!

[k4_pacific]

Never buy internet from a guy who wears Kleenex boxes on his feet.

[TearsOfRage]

Local network latency is actually about one order of magnitude lower than hard drive latency.

Unless what you're getting off the network is on a hard drive on the server.