What new laptop/computer will work with Pro Tools 8? ha

[sma5jp]

Hi guys

I've been working with Pro Tools 8 LE for a few years and love it but the Windows laptop I'm using is just not up to it, 2gb RAM and crap CPU mean that enough is enough and I have to invest in something powerful.

My budget is about £600 or $800 or there abouts. It seems laptops with i5 processors and 8Gb RAM are easily available for about £400 nowadays, which is great. However I'm concerned about Pro Tools 8 running on them, specifically on Windows 8. Would anyone recommend getting Windows 8 or 7?

Also I'm not sure about the whole 32 bit / 64 bit systems. What I understand is that a machine running with 8Gb memory will be 64 bit and won't work with PT8 as that's in 32 bit? I'll level with you. I don't really understand this!

I'm not against getting a mac or desktop, however I'm concerned with the costs of getting a new mac and then having to get a newer version of Pro Tools with it.

Basically, if you had a copy of Pro Tools 8 LE for windows, and a budget of £600 / £700 for a machine to use it on, what would you do? What particular things would you be looking out for?

Thanks, Jamie