I'm sold on the MBA 11" on everything but the CPU. It just seems to slow to me IMO, anything in particular that really slows is thing down? Can it do email/safari/excel/work at the same time no problems? Does it work well with filemaker? I'm not sure I think I might go for the 1.6Ghz just be pause I don't want to encounter anything really slowing it down.
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Is the CPU lacking?
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The tasks you listed require nearly no CPU power at all (not 100% sure about Filemaker). CPU isn't the bottleneck in today's computers, the MBA is just fine for your needs.
Exactly what I wanted to hear! So tell me, what tasks take up the CPU a fair bit? I'm just worried that I'll get beach balling or slow responsiveness with the CPU. Might get the 1.6 anyway since I wont be getting another for a while and it isn't that expensive to compliment the SSD.
Video&audio encoding and editing, photo editing, gaming, rendering... Usually something to do with productivity and stuff, basic tasks don't take much CPU. I don't notice huge slow down even though I maxed out the CPU on my iMac or MBA. Things that require CPU will work fine but just take longer to complete. HD is the biggest cause of slow downs, with MBA that's not an issue though as it has SSD
HellHammer is right. For those tasks you wrote (email, safari, excel, work), I probably don't use more than 10% of my CPU power. I'm not sure about Filemaker either, but it shouldn't be too bad. I personally do not think that the upgrade from 1.4ghz to 1.6ghz is worth $100, but that is up to you. You certainly will not see beachballs with the new MBA. In fact, it will feel snappier than most computers because it has an SSD.