Okay, it IS faster than my 2006 1,1 (2,1) Mac Pro, but it is not blazing fast booting or waking from sleep. In fact, I cannot remember a computer this slow to wake. More important though, It does allow me to have more than two dozen tabs active in Firefox and still function as if there were only one open. The Mac Pro couldn't have handled a dozen or sometimes even one with multiple ads running on it. So it has power to spare and is indeed much smoother when changing context between apps. I think it uses the multi-tasking, -threading functions better than Intel ever did as that used only one or two of the cores most of the time. Not needing the more complex work programs I used to run on my Mac Pro, I cannot say, but I suspect that some processor intensive tasks, such as database reindexing or repair would be astonishingly faster with the CPU/SSD team in this great little box.My only complaint is Apple is a little too fashion conscious. This should have been a little bigger with more ports. As it is, you need every port and and a USB hub for Keyboard, mouse, video, DVD, and external drive. It would have been nice to have a USB port in the front for convenience, not all  connections are permanent. Depending on your external connection needs, you may have to purchase an external hub. I have six connections of USB  and Thunderbolt. That may be more than you need. If not, I would recommend a Thunderbolt hub with USB ports as well.Edit 4 months later. Still happy and would not give it up. One little annoyance is that this version of Mail is more complex and you must scroll up and down if you have multiple email accounts to keep tabs on them. I use rules to sort my mail into folders. Bills here, newsletters there, etc. Also, one rule to forward emails I have rewritten five times and it does not work at all, I have to forward the mail manually. Other rules do forward sometimes, but are not trustworthy.  The toolbar in Mail does not stay edited and sometimes randomly reverts to the default. The toolbar is a little wonky and you cannot space the icons your way as it always readjusts what you designed.It is still amazingly fast at most of what I do. Browsing using FireFox is instant. I will have two dozen or more tabs open, some to compare different products and you can go from one to any other one as fast as you can click.