Using two benchmarking programs: Performance Test 6.1's CPU test and HD Tach from Simple Software I measured performance I’ve started collecting historical benchmarks on my PCs.
Turtle’s are laptops and Frogs are my desktops.
Frog 2003: Decent Dell Dimension for its time. Score 132.
Turtle 2006: My ThinkPad T60 which is what I took on business trips in 2006. Score 150.
Turtle 2007 My ThinkPad T61 which is in the process of replacing the T60 once I finish transfering everything to it. A good 2007 laptop. Score 286.
Frog 2007: My work desktop PC is a Dell XPS 710. A quad core monster with Raid 10. It's about the fastest PC you can get. Score 798. State of the art 2007 machine.
Frog 2008: My home PC is a Dell XPS Gen 3. It was state of the art in 2005. Score 125.
Frog 2008: My updated home PC for 2008 an Alienware Area 51. It's state of the art for 2008. Score 885.
Turtle 2008: My updated new ThinkPad T400, fairly state of the art laptop for 2008 which replaced the T61. Score 563.
Frog 2009 The new work machine in training, the Frog 2009. Score 2014!
I also use an ultra portable Thinkpad X40 laptop PC but I didn't have time to mess with it, it's a ThinkPad X40 which I use for surfing that I usually carry around with me. It's slower than the rest.
So below were the results for those of you interested in seeing how these machines stack up.
Hard Disk Benchmarks
This is my hard drive at home. It's a Dell Dimension XPS Gen 3 from 2005.
This is from the ThinkPad T61 laptop. Brand new as of November 2007. My new laptop is about as fast as my state of the art hard drive from my XPS from 2 years ago.
This is my ThinkPad T60.
This is from my mega machine at work. Dell XPS 710.
CPU Benchmarks
My main Dell Dimension box back in 2003. Pentium IV running at 2.8Ghz. Score is 132.
XPS Generation 3 (2005): 125.5
XPS 710 (Quadcore, 2007): 798.3 Wow. MUCH faster. AKA Frog-2007.
ThinkPad T60 (2006): 149.8. Faster than my XPS Gen 3. DualCore. AKA Turtle-2006.
ThinkPad T61 (2007): 286. Twice as fast as my old ThinkPad. But still no where near my mega machine (Frog 2007) at the office.
Meanwhile, at home in 2008, I bought an Alienware box.
Alienware Quadcore monster (Frog 2008) This new machine is even faster than my monster machine at work which is saying a lot. Score: 885.
And then I got a new laptop.
The new Thinkpad T400 (Turtle 2008) is amazingly much faster than the T61 was and nearly as fast as my work monster machine. Crazy. Rating 563 overall. This is my beloved ThinkPad T400. I love it.
Update 2009:
I introduce the new Core i7 monster machine. Has the Core i7 965 in it. 3.2Ghz.
Almost 3 times faster than Frog 2008 (the monster Alienware box). Just amazing! Score: 2014!