Pipeline Surf Point

I have very little knowledge on computers, but I am looking for a good, reliable computer to go to college with. I will mainly use it for schoolwork, and surfing the net/ e-mail. I went to dell.com to customize it but I really didn’t know what anything meant so I’d really appreciate to get some feedback on what I choose.
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7250 (2MB cache/2.0GHz/800Mhz FSB)
OPERATING SYSTEM: Genuine Windows® Vista Home Premium Edition SP1
DISPLAY:High Resolution, glossy widescreen 14.1 inch display (1440×900)
VIDEO CARD:128MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8400M GS
MEMORY:3GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 667MHz
HARD DRIVE Size: 250GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE:CD / DVD writer (DVD+/-RW Drive)
WIRELESS NETWORK CARDS:Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N Mini-card
BATTERY OPTIONS:85Whr Lithium Ion Battery (9 cell)
SOUND OPTIONS:High Definition Audio 2.0
OFFICE SOFTWARE;Microsoft® Office Home and Student 2007 – Word, Excel + PowerPoint

I’m looking to buy a new pc as mine is a few years old now and starting to get a few problems now and again.
I don’t need it for anything fancy just surfing the net, burning dvds, playing games, the usual stuff.
I’ve seen this one and thought it looked good but could any of you guys tell me if you think its a good deal or not as I’m no expert on this stuff. Its just the unit as I don’t need a new monitor.
I did want XP instead of Vista but it looks like I can only change for other versions of Vista.
Here’s the details
Dell Vostro 220 Base Unit – Price £229
Intel® Pentium Dual-Core E5200 processor (2.5GHz, 800MHz, 2MB cache)
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium with Service Pack 1, 32-bit – English
2048MB 800MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x1024]
250GB (7200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive with 8MB DataBurst cache
Integrated Intel® Graphic Media Accelerator X4500
Integrated 5.1 Channel Audio HD
Dell Entry Quietkey USB Keyboard – UK/Irish (QWERTY)
Dell 2 Button USB Optical Mouse
16x DVD +/- RW Drive
Microsoft® Works 9.0 – English
1Yr CAR Warranty

SYSTEM COLOR Jet Black edit
PROCESSOR Intel® Pentium® Dual Core T2330 (1.6GHz/533Mhz FSB/1MB cache) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition edit
DISPLAY Glossy, high contrast, widescreen 14.1 inch display (1280×800) edit
VIDEO CARD Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 edit
MEMORY 2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 667MHz edit
HARD DRIVE Size: 120GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM) edit
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE CD / DVD writer (DVD+/-RW Drive) edit
WIRELESS NETWORK CARDS Dell Wireless 1395 802.11g Mini Card edit
INTEGRATED WEBCAM No Camera edit
BATTERY OPTIONS 56Whr Lithium Ion Battery (6 cell) edit
SOUND OPTIONS High Definition Audio 2.0
this is the setup i want for my DELL inspiron 1420
think i will be able to run things well and efficently like small games/essays and normal surfing of the internet? also will it be pretty fast and not bog down?

So i’m going to be buying a laptop soon and I was wondering if this woudl be a good laptop for not only schoolwork and surfing the web but playing games like left 4 dead and that im also on a budget so I can’t go crazy something between $500 and $700 but no more
heres the specs:
HP – Pavilion Laptop with AMD Turion™ X2 RM-72 Dual-Core Mobile Processor
AMD Turion™ X2 RM-72* dual-core mobile processor
4GB DDR2 memory
Multiformat DVD±RW/CD-RW drive with double-layer support
14.1″ WXGA high-definition widescreen display
250GB SATA hard drive (5400 rpm)
ATI RADEON HD 3200 graphics RS780M
With up to 1918MB total graphics memory
Quick Launch button
Built-in HP Pavilion webcam and integrated microphone
5-in-1 digital media reader
Supports Secure Digital, MultiMediaCard, Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO and xD-Picture Card for easy digital photo transfer.
Expansion port 3
2 high-speed USB 2.0 ports
For fast digital video, audio and data transfer. 1 eSATA/USB combo port.
Built-in high-speed wireless LAN (802.11b/g)
10/100Base-T Ethernet LAN
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Edition 64-bit operating system with Service Pack 1
so would this do the trick? or is there a better one out there for a better or same price?

is this a good laptop for someone who will only be using it for web surfing, MS office, and storing music (itunes)…is there something i could change that would reduce the price but still do what i want it to do? I’m a computer noob so any help would be appreciated!
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T5250 (1.5GHz/667Mhz FSB/2MB cache)
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 667MHz
Size: 250GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
CD writer / DVD player (Combo Drive)
Dell Wireless 1390 802.11g Mini-Card
Built-in Bluetooth capability (2.0 EDR)
High Definition Audio 2.0