Mathematica can be used to benchmark a machine by testing performance of methods relevent to Mathematica's operation. One method generates a text report while another generates a graphical comparison to other machines. Here are the results (Mathematica 7.0.1.0) for a Core i7-980X with 12GiB 1600MHz RAM. Unfortunately, my Mathematica only seems to be licensed for four cores despite this machine having 12 hardware threads. Consequently quite a bit of this machine's power is ignored by Mathematica.