Advice please - desktop purchase

[Polixenes]

Thanks all, and especially Falkun, thanks for your very informative posts this morning. I'll spend some time following the links you provided.

I'm not really keen to try to build a PC myself - my only experience with the inner workings is to replace a dud RAM chip, and even then I was crapping myself due to dire warnings of the slightest static electricity frying it.

The nearest I ever got to a lesson in computers at school was making a stickman in BASIC language to walk across the screen and go up in an elevator.

But I can get expert help here from the IT guys and as I said earlier, bung them some cash to get the job done.