This summer I allowed me an almost maxed out MacBook Pro 15" (512 GB Apple/Samsung SSD, 8GB Ram, 2,66 Ghz Core i7).
Little cheat: second start with the same plugin configuration, so the defaults and workspace are not rebuilt.
InDesign CS5 startup time is 9 seconds (Debug) or slightly below 4 seconds (Release) including all default panels shown.
For comparison, the values double with a MacBook Air (128 GB SSD, 2GB, 1,4 GHz Core 2 Duo), which needs 19 seconds (Debug) and 7 seconds (Release).
With the 15", launch&debug from XCode, after compilation, takes 14 seconds (Debug). Not too bad considering that gdb loads many symbols. My estimate is you need 1 GB RAM extra to make the debugger happy. The really impressive point though is how XCode utilizes the 4 cores to fly thru the sources in parallel.
Too bad that my focus at the moment is a 99% scripting project where speed considerations are mostly neglected.
Dirk
