Memory can be a limiting factor on many pipelines with some processes requiring up to 50Go of RAM. I would suggest testing your pipeline on a computer with a lot of RAM and CPU to have an idea of what you need for your pipeline before buying your laptop, this also depends on the size of your input files, how many parallel jobs you want to run, etc.

Also you can check the CPU for different instruction sets (AVX2, SSE2, etc.) because they can speed up a lot compatible programs. Generally, recent Intel CPUs have good standards for scientific computing.

And as considered above, as a personal computer, I'm considering using a laptop because the desktop would be inconvenient. Our laboratory does not have a server, so analysis using a server is expected to be limited.

Since you want any advice, mine would be to buy a desktop with a lot more memory than 32-64 Gb. In my experience, that memory size is not enough for most serious bioinformatics applications. I am finding out more recently that even 256 Gb often doesn't work. On top of that, laptops typically come with 0.5-1 Tb disk (or even 0.25 Tb), which is not easy to extend and it isn't enough for serious datasets. Desktops will come with at least 2-4 Tb disks, and it is usually easy enough to add a couple of 10 Tb puppies to them because they have more space for extra drives.

If you still don't want to / can't buy a desktop, I think at the very least you should secure access to some kind of high performance computing (HPC) cluster. Then you can do heavy lifting on a cluster, and you could get away with a 32 Gb laptop for supporting processes and simple data analysis. If you have never experienced a sound of a laptop fan that is doing heavy-duty calculation, trust me that it isn't pretty. Top priority in laptops is mobility (light, long battery life), not ability to do heavy work.