Over a 3 year span, a machine really doesn't have to save that much time to make it a worth while investment.

I would be very curious to see crestron compiling times as well. I believe mulit-core processors don't matter, so you're really looking for the i7 processor with best single core speed.

I've been pretty happy with the Lenovo W520 but the dual drive setup isn't as simple as I'd prefer. it works fine, but would be nice to just have a single SSD and less computer management.