I used to thing a real serial ort was a must but I now have a good USB serial converter from
www.plccable.com and haven't looked back
As for laptops I run 5 different VMS and my current dell has been lagging ( when running any vm) so I was looking at a new Dell. Ayers have treated me poorly and dell's good so I will stick with them most likely. I'm going to look at the links posted in here though.
My current lagging setup has 8gb of ram but no solid state drive and also dual core and the clock speed is lower. It did its job when I bought it and I will keep it for a spare. But my needs have increased. Lol