Thanks for all that, people. Thoughts so far:
I don't want a Mac, because I don't want the hassle of learning anything new - and I'm sure I'd have to! And I don't want to spend close to a grand either! Everything people say about them is good, IF you have the time and energy to learn it all. I don't. I'm not actually that interested (arggghh, I said that, on the computer forum!!!!!!!!!). I just want to be able to carry on pressing buttons as I have been for years, no more. So Binos had it about right. But you weren't to know that - there are degrees of non-techieness!!!
Make up my own! Arggghhhhhh. I'm sure it's a good idea, and I could probably learn to, but at the moment...no way; I can't even transfer all the stuff from my old one to my new one without help. I know just about enough to know that walking into PC World and putting myself at the mercy of a 16 year old salesman is a Bad Idea (actually, the said 16 year old salesman treated me like a silly lady who knew absolutely nothing and didn't have a single brain cell, and I walked out), but not much more.
OK, I'm looking at Novatech's catalogue, and thinking about the following:
Sigma XP 2400 FX
AMD Athlon XP 2400+
512MB PC2700 333MHz DDR RAM
80GB 7200rpm Hard Drive
128MBDDR GeForce FX5200 AGP Card
CDRW/DVD Combo Drive
16 Bit 3D Sound on-board (AC '97)
10/100 RJ45 Network Port
56K Modem
With Windows XP Home Edition, £479.40 including VAT, plus about £20 delivery.
Any comments?