You might be interested in the system monitor.
Available in the Debian repositories.
http://conky.sourceforge.net/
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=205865
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=281865
Once installed, the command, conky, will put the info on the
background of the desktop.
The command, conky -o will place the info inside a window.