I need to get a laptop (looking at 15.6" screens so it is genuinely portable, as I need it for remote music recording. $1,500 or less if possible)

BUT it will be my main PD11 editor. Where do I spend the big bucks? i.e. what matters most when PD11 showing clip to clip transitions correctly while in editing mode?

Processor and processor speed? Hard drive speed? Video card and memory? RAM? Etc.? What are the recommendations for those specs, and if I upgrade any one or two of them, which ones will go the farthest in making the transitions truly WYSIWYG while editing videos?

And which matter the least?

My current laptop was a throw away from an old job, zero video capability.

My desktop is just too old. When I use Power Director 11 to make 3 minute videos, where I want to fade or cross fade between two short clips, 90% of the time my video preview will not show the transition correctly. It freezes, then the video goes ultra high speed to catch up to the sound.

So, for me to see my transitions from clip to clip, I must render an whole video (a 5 min video in HD takes almost 1 hour, tiny AVI takes 12 minutes or more.) So I waste a LOT of time since I cannot view my transitions while i am editing video.

So, I am going to buy a laptop that is better than my current desktop. I will just set up a bigger monitor etc when using PD11.

I was thinking of going with a mid-priced "gaming" laptop that had at least 3GB dedicated memory for the card (GTX 770?) because I do play one MMP game on line.

I have never bought a laptop, however. And all my PCs are 4 yo.

I assume video editing requires more umph than gaming. So what specs should I not skimp on, and which are bells and whistles that will not effect PD11 performance?

Thanks