The speed test is simply sending one to four packets (infitestimanlly small) compared with reading and writing data to a database. It is just a quick method to compare one computer to the next.
Make yourself a large file, hopefully a GB, but a 100MB file and just copy and paste it from your computer to your "server," and note the time. This will give you a better idea.
My speeds are generally < 0.7 all on all computers, but it has no indicator of my actual speeds with any version. Now, if I used wireless and the speed on that wireless connection were 5.2, that would give me some info to use overall.
So, it is going to boil down to coding of the program, which will relate to cachiing of data on AC and how AC reads and writes to the database. As some have said earlier, the two biggest performance enhancers will be having a wired network (by far) and the fastest processor possible as it appears AC is only using one core of the possibly four your processor has such as in an i7 processor. The latter part of this was figured out with the help of two other people on the board who should receive credit, but I will keep them namesless for now in case they do not wish to have their names written here.
Bottom line, your tests were a good idea overall, but do not bear out your conclusion.
