[Ghoulish Delight]

It's insanely difficult to interpret hardware specs these days. There are so many different types of processor technology that two processors can have wildly different speed ratings, yet the "slower" one could actually be the better performing chip, depending on whether it's multi-core, hpyerthreaded, what the bus speeds are, etc. etc. etc. There is simply no way anymore to make direct stats comparisons between system configs.

However, the flip side of that is that it no longer matters as much anymore. It's my perception that a couple years ago, hardware finally started to outpace software in growth. Meaning that (for the most part), as long as you're not getting the lowest of the lowest end and as long as you're not going to be a power gamer or looking for top-end multimedia performance, you're hard pressed to find a system that can't handle your every day requirements. As long as you've got at least 4GB of RAM and a decent sized hard drive, you're probably good to go.