I must say, I also could not recommend any laptop with 4GB of RAM or a HDD. Must be 8GB of RAM minimum and SSD minimum.
As for CPU cores, it depends. A recent Ryzen or Intel Core CPU with 2 cores is okay, as long as it has hyper threading. But one of those dual core Celeron things is just too slow. So if it is a Celeron, it must be quad core, if it is not, dual core is okay but obviously quad core is better.
The days when you could get a decently performing laptop for under R7k are unfortunately long gone.
As for CPU cores, it depends. A recent Ryzen or Intel Core CPU with 2 cores is okay, as long as it has hyper threading. But one of those dual core Celeron things is just too slow. So if it is a Celeron, it must be quad core, if it is not, dual core is okay but obviously quad core is better.
The days when you could get a decently performing laptop for under R7k are unfortunately long gone.