Advice. What brand desktop?
Macs are great but are expensive for what you actually get. I had an E machines for probably 6-8 years, still works fine. I gave it to my parents to use. I don't know if Id recommend buying one though. From what I understand they used to build Emachines out of leftover parts from discontinued computers. Not sure if they still do. Also stay as far away from dell as physically possible. Not only are they crap but you need to go threw tech support to warranty anything. Their tech support is horrible, you talk to guys overseas that don't have a clue about computers. I spent 3 months trying to get my 500 dollar graphics card fixed under the warranty. Never got it warrantied got angry and sold the computer. won't ever touch dell again. Lately I have been using HP computers. good bang for the buck in some cases and have not had issues with either of the two yet.
As for a laptop, I would not recommend it unless you really need it. They just end up with more problems over time and in my experience don't last as long as a desktop. but that's the trade off of being able to take it with you. They are very nice if you travel a lot.