Passmark is a benchmark. It has very little to do with the day-to-day reality of operating a computer. I'll glance at benchmarks when I'm evaluating a purchase, but most of the time I'm far more interested in subjective performance, which comes down to the simple question "Is this machine fast/tolerable to use?"
I have a couple high-end Thinkpads that are two years old. CPU-wise there's probably zero subjective difference between those guys and a T410 for anything I do on a notebook.
I'm still tempted to purchase a T410 because they have nicer screens and longer battery life, but I'm not operating under any delusion that an i7 will be subjectively faster than the 2.8GHz C2D I have now.
As far as SSDs go, I stuck a G1 X25-M in a T61. It cuts boot/wake-up time down to about 20 seconds vs. maybe 50 seconds on a 500GB 7200.6. It also gives me anywhere from 20 to 40 extra minutes of battery life. Application start times are as one would expect.
I wind up using network connections much more heavily on that machine due the limited amount of local storage, but my software and essential documents do fit in that space.
Mercutio: Keep in mind that you, and industry professionals, get to try, and use many more computers then someone in my arena, and, I'm WAY above most of the folks I know that use computers.
With the myrid different chips, sockets, etc. it's difficult for a non-pro, or dabbler, to have any idea of what kind of comparing you can do with different systems. Passmark is a HUGE help, because it gives ball parks for a LOT of different chips.
With my limited experience with laptops, it's ALL about hard drives and bus speed.
I'll time the CF-51 on boot, and to log in, then to full function right now:
This with the processor working @ 1.6ghz, not 590 mhz: 47 Seconds to boot screen, 7200 rpm seagate drive.
To full function from password: Another 30 seconds before it stops loading off the hard drive.
Other then that, and blown speakers, it should be ok for awhile for the stuff I use it for.
I'm pretty sure an SSD would bring any laptop into this time zone...
"As far as SSDs go, I stuck a G1 X25-M in a T61. It cuts boot/wake-up time down to about 20 seconds vs. maybe 50 seconds on a 500GB 7200.6. It also gives me anywhere from 20 to 40 extra minutes of battery life. Application start times are as one would expect. "
This is pretty key for me. If I can get stuff to load 2x or more faster, and, put the pagefile on a SSD, I can't help but think that's going to make a major improvement over a standard drive.