Hey man, Im a newb so you might want to take someone elses advice hah, but I figured Id at least tell you what problem I am having as I type.
I have a custom build PC with windows xp pro, 2.21gHz processor, 1.5g RAM, 500g external harddrive. Recently I got
a Firestudio project with
cubase LE4 on it. I recorded some guitar, went in and EQed adding a couple of plugins just for kicks, and stuff and it ran fine. Then heres where the problem came in. I recorded drums, 8 tracks, everything went it fine, but when i went to mix and playback, major problems. I started adding EQ to the drum tracks, and reverb, and some compression. When I tryed to play back the guitar with the drums, the computer shot to 100% CPU Usage, started skipping, and poping, and then just froze. I tried about 5 different times recording, hoping that it was just a bad drum/guitar track, but I dont think it was.
Im still not sure what the problem is exactly, could be computer, could be something else, but i have a feeling youll need better specs that what I have.
And I agree with suprstar, get a desktop and save money, but if you are going to be going to friends houses and stuff to record or dont want it in just one spot, a laptop should do the job. Im not sure what your price range is but here are a couple that looked good to me!
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834100019
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834115493
Best of luck to you!