I’ve never used a Mac, so I stick with PCs. I’ve had the best luck with Gateway and Acer brands, and I strongly prefer Windows 7 over Windows 8. For the Processor Type, I recommend an Intel Core i3, i5, or i7. I don’t recommend the Intel Pentium, Celeron, or AMD processors.
For processor speeds for laptops I’d recommend anything above 2.3 GHz. Many of the laptops I’ve bought recently for my work are 2.53 GHz. For the System Memory (RAM) I recommend getting 4 GB or higher.
There aren’t as many options for Windows 7 laptops are there are Windows 8, but they are out there. I usually purchase from either Best Buy or newegg.com. Hope this helps!