Linear and/or Non-linear?
Standard and/or Explicit?
How many DOFs or nodes in the typical model?
How many tokens do you have?
I would suggest getting a workstation for the real work and use the laptop to remote connect to the work station for viewing and manipulating the model. Also, if you try to run an analysis on battery power make sure you are close to an outlet. I hope this helps.
intel quad core, 4-8gb ram workstation, linux powered?
and a cheap laptop with exceed/ vnc... so that you can connect to the computer if you really want that.