1. A log.
2. The ability to pause and resume work.
2a. The ability to pause work, close application, reatart computer then open app and resume work

3. A Batch mode for freaks like me.
4. A quick preview mode (compressing and previewing 30 secs of compressed stuff)
5. Timers (Elapsed/Remaining/Total/Absolute Total)
6. (optional but cool) Comparison CPU Charts (I know, this might be yet another benchmarking method but it's worth a try)
7. CPU Optimizations (including SSE(1,2,3) and 64-bit optimizations).
9. All of the above
Oh, and: 8. SPEED!