Once you decide on which AV to use and get it installed and after you have your laptop all configured the way you like it, my advice is to use software like the free Macrium Reflect to create an image of your laptop's drive. Don't rely on the mfr's restore disks or partition since if you ever restore from them, your laptop will be right back to how it was configured the day you brought it home from the store.
It's also a good idea to periodically create a new system image in order to keep the image up-to-date with your computer's latest configuration as you install/uninstall software and make tweaks here and there.
No idea what that means, but thanks. I'll keep it in mind.