If you genuinly (spl?) have no interest in playing proper games/downloading movies/editing/burning to dvd etc then go for the laptop as like you say you can sit downstairs with Lins and be sociable

You can play games etc on the laptop but i'm guessing not the cutting edge games but then even if you wanted to do that on a desktop it will cost an arm and a leg for the graphics card etc

The link the guy above posted about the dell stuff is a good link as dell are pretty good at all rounders not the best of the best more a jack of all trades

You want absolute minimum...
Core 2 duo processor 2Ghz or higher (quad core is better but costs more)

bare bare minimum of 1gb of memory (i would only have a minimum of 2 but trying to set a cheap example)

If your looking to have Vista then you will need more memory mate as it supposedly struggles with 1gb of memory so if Vista is on the list then go for minimum of 2gb of memory but if funds allow go for 3 or 4 (i think vista 32bit only supports 3.5gb but not 100% sure)

Grahics can be updated at a later date to save costs if you want?


Mart