Recommended specs for a new laptop?

[allspiritseve]

I am in the market for a new laptop. One of the most resource-intensive things I do is run Windows XP on VirtualBox so I can use Photoshop and IE 6,7, and 8. I'm wondering what the recommended specs would be for a system that would run VirtualBox relatively painlessly (my current laptop's host OS [Ubuntu 8.10] runs pretty slow when VB is running).

[vbox4me2]

Dual Core.
VT-x chip (get this verified in writing!).
VT-x BIOS (get this verified in writing!).
64bit board.
8gb ram.

[allspiritseve]

Would you favor 8GB DDR2 over 4GBDDR3? (Probably a stupid question but I don't know how much of an improvement DDR3 is over DDR2).

[vbox4me2]

More ram is better then ddr type.

[allspiritseve]

Cool. Would an SSD drive have a noticeable improvement over a 7,200RPM drive? I suppose I can always replace the drive later on, SSD prices still seem a little high.

[vbox4me2]

I have yet to see any usefull incease other then a really fast hybernation money is better spend on a second battery.

[allspiritseve]

Thanks... you've helped me out a ton