UK Laptop for use with Sonar LE and a UA-25EX USB Audio Interface

Hey guys

Hopeing for a bit of help with this......

My friend is looking to start on a small home studio.

He is planing to buy a UA-25EX USB Audio Interface 2 inputs and one midi is all he is needing and the bundled Sonar LE will be enough for him to be geting on with what he needs to do.

I cant recomend the specs for a laptop to him as I dont know what is best for him so I hope you guys can help.......

First thing I do know is he will need a second hard drive to record the audio on to so is this better to be Fire wire or USB ?

Now to work out the specs that are needed for a rypical project he will do

He wont be working on huge projects for instance his session will have 2 - 3 guitar tracks bass track and a couple of vocals and something like session drummer or Ez drummer for some drum sounds

The projects wont be huge since the plan is to be able to learn from his and then bring the projects to my studio and finish them from here.

Could anyone advise a lap top in the £300 - £350 price range?

I feel bad I cant tell him what specs to go fo I am mostly doing big sessions and I go over kill on my system specs just incase.

All help would be awesome

Thanks to all in advance

Norrie