I suggest that you get the motor drive. You'll learn about tracking. It'll force you to roughly polar align that mount (for the first time?
) You'll enjoy being able to automatically track when you push the magnification up on the Moon, Jupiter and Saturn. Much easier, also, for showing a group of others the sights - you don't have to kep re-centering the object between each person. And, you'll get a good bit of your money back when you sell the scope/mount.
I think you can do things without a laptop at present.
Have a good look at the Gstar. It gets good reviews for what it does.
For photography, it seems that, for the Moon and the Planets, poking your point & shoot at the eyepiece and clicking can give you "respectable" beginners results, with a bit of practice. Well, best to start somewhere and produce some results you can proudly show off. I'm sure that you have read enough to know what a challenge it is, financially, time, equipment, to start seriously down an astrophotography route.