New Laptop and hard drive advise

I would select Intel I5 or pref I7 with 6 or 8 GB ram and
500GB hard or more with SSD drive as well. I use the Acer
Aspire Timeline Model M5-581T-6807. It has a 20GB SSD drive
that act like RAM for faster operating speed, a 500 GB hard
drive with Windows 8.1 and JR Media Center. I use an OCZ
Vertex4 SSD drive with Indilinx for music storage and back-
up. Get rid of all "CRAP WARE" that may come already
installed and only use for music and updating the software.
Do not install a bunch of security and virus software. I
onlu use minimum that windows provides. No important or
sensitive data is ever kept on the hard drive so any
"Hacker" would be disappointed when they see my data.

Try to find one that has long battery life, (6-8 Hours).
Music sounds better, YMMV.

Be sure to follow computeraudiophile.com tips for turning
off unneeded programs and extraneous utilities.

I am sure others will offer their suggestions as well.

Why do you need a PC?

I am using a MAC Book Pro Computer (13") and the LaCie 3TB d2 USB 3.0 Thunderbolt Series Hard Drive. The MAC has a 2.9GHz Dual-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz, 8GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM — 2x4G and a 128GB Solid State Drive.

All CD's are ripped to the LaCie hard drive using the AIFF format.

I think Tom gave you good advice. What I would add for your consideration is the use of Windows Server 2012 as OS and AudioPhil's Optimizer. While a laptop is not an ideal environment compared to a purpose built desktop PC, significant gains should be achieved by using these.

Thanks for the advice, I bought a WD mypassport ultra 1tb storage for the music. Do you think that might work?

Am using a 1 TB Seagate portable ext. HD w/MacBook Air. Works great.