Well, with a laptop you are stuck with whatever they have onboard for sound. This is a huge reason why I am considering buying a desktop for the studio so I have control over the sound card.

As far as MIDI, all I can do is tell you that I use an M-Audio Fast Track Pro and I really like it.

The laptop is a Dell Inspiron, Intel 3.2 ghz dual core processor, 4 mb of RAM with a 24 inch flat panel attached using a dual screen monitor. (Supposedly that was part of the screen redraw problem that was addressed by the last patch, but I know of several people who posted and 3 here in my area who had the same issue with ONE monitor and never bothered to post about it. The patch fixed them all.)

Something else to consider when going the laptop route. The first thing I did was install a USB hub so I could use a detached keyboard and mouse I had laying around. Just a better feel for me to use a full sized keyboard and an optical mouse instead of that little touch pad thingy. And with my old eyes, I really need that 24 inch flat panel.

Now all this may be different depending on how you use BIAB. I just do basic demos that go out to players so they can learn the songs. If you are going to use it to be portable, get a library built to take the laptop out and play gigs, your application may be different. Given that scenario though, I would install BIAB on both systems, use the desktop for the studio creation work, copy the songs to the laptop with a flash drive or SD card, and gig with the laptop.

Don't sweat the OS. Windows 7 is the one Micro$oft finally got right. It will run just fine.