Compiling the linux kernel is a fairly good benchmark. Especially since a lot of my day is spent compiling 

code and programming. So I decided to compile a stock PaysonLinux kernel (2.6.32.9) in various 

systems and compare compiling time. Here are the results in each of my systems:

Machine Number One:

HP Pavilion dv6000 (laptop)

Windows XP SP3

3 GB DDR2 800 MHz Ram

2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo

PaysonLinux installed in VirtualBox with a 20 GB hard drive image (not dynamic)

Real 76m56.418s

User 40m6.351s

Sys 43m53.418s

Machine Number Two:

Dell Optiplex (server)

PaysonLinux 1.5

512 MB DDR2 533 Ram

2.8 GHz Pentium 4 HT

Real 72m27.601s

User 62m31.176s

Sys 7m55.526s

Machine Number Three:

Dell Latitude D620 (laptop)

PaysonLinux 1.8

2.5 GB DDR2 800 MHz Ram

2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo

Real 60m58.084s

User 53m14.081s

Sys 7m15.363s

Machine Number Four:

Lenovo Thinkpad T500 (laptop) ** new system **

PaysonLinux 2.0.1

4 GB DDR3 1067 MHz Ram

2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo

Real 21m19.746s

User 37m14.059s

Sys 4m33.276s

As you could imagine, I'm quite happy with my new Thinkpad!