3years since I bought a PC, Want to edit Avchd

[R.A.J.]

An update & advice please. I want to edit Avchd from my sony camcoder which produces 1080 50i.
Presently I use Vegas Studio Plat 10 on a Sony dual core laptop, which works but not ideal.

So to buy a new machine. I know entheusiasts would rather use a desktop, but surely some of the advice around previously is out of date as performance of all machines has advanced. The price range and performance of laptops is very confusing.

So criteria to consider

Intel I7? 2nd or 3rd gen does it matter? Clock speed?
2nd disc ? SSD? Spin speed?
Ext USB3?
Windows 64 or 32?
Graphics performance?
1920 * 1080 screen?

All of these are much cheaper than before but are someof them over the top for home video use?

[TreeTops]

You may want to download Vegas Studio Platinum 11 for a trial. I use that on a 3 year old computer and can edit AVCHD just fine.

[budwzr]

A little trick with Vegas is to create a loop region around the area you want to preview in realtime, and let it loop a few times. Every loop will get faster and finally play in realtime including FX.

If you really want to go first class, take a look at the Toshiba Qosmio line of laptops.