Notebooks are always better and far more utilitarian and the least of them will do a nice job on small lighter weight projects. My wife does her projects on a Dell 1501 and M-Audio Fast Track USB. But you will need to spring for a decent interface. Chose your interface based on the software you want. Personally I use the Presonus Firebox.

I have been a Cakewalk fan since version ONE since it came on 5 1/2" floppys and have tried Cubase, Ableton, and a few others but always came back to Cakewalk is still my favorite. No copy protection dongles etc. Boss' Edirol UFX25 is a great USB interface if you want Cakewalk since Roland and cakewalk are now partners as is Cubase and Yamaha much to my disappointment.lol.
Pro Tools is considered
"more professional" if you know you will use a major studio at some time, you will most likely found Pro Tools there. Seems when people pay for Studio time, they expect Pro Tools even though the major software out there today can do everything Pro Tools can do for 99% of the projects and use NON proprietary plug ins that can be shared easily cross platform unlike Pro Tools.


BTW Audacity is FREE Open Source multi track recording software that makes a good entrée into computer recording

[This message has been edited by Kingfrog (edited 12-28-2008).]