For a newbie with a laptop for mining, the best thing to do is to use MultiMiner:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=248173.0You can set strategies on how and what to mine, for example you can choose to mine coins that are profitable (according to CoinChoose), or having the best price or having the least difficulty.
All you have to do if fill the coins' details with your pools URLs and miners credentials and let the mining be done efficiently without you worrying what is best.
You can even extend this 'setup' by using Cryptsy exchange. In the pools you register enter the Cryptsy deposit-generated address (so you won't need to download several coin wallets) and the mined coins are sent there directly. (Note that this does not work with P2Pools as stated on Cryptsy).
You can even use their latest feature to autotrade the coins everytime there is a deposit for a true hands-off system for newbies.
My friends and I are currently using this same system (don't have access to big/good mining rigs at the moment in Uni) and we're using laptops too.
I can say that till now we're really seeing some good progress with the little hashrate we have - LTC and BTC are rising everyday in our accounts even though little by little by means of this system.
Hope this gives you a lead at least...
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