Exactly that. I've been a fan of it for laptops for years. I've yet to find another sysmon that can display so much area in such a small space in such a easy-to-consume format. It's also much less of an impact on the system than many other tools I've tried, which is pretty important when you're on battery power.
http://www.mactricksandtips.com/2008/09/ipulse-a-system-reso...
http://iconfactory.com/software/ipulse