Advice. What brand desktop?

I say Mac also. For what you're doing with it, the Mac is a perfect solution. If you have a monitor you like, you might look at a Mac Mini.

Yeah, everyone has bad ones, but overall Apple's service record is very very good. I have three Macs at home (Mac Pro and two Macbooks), and around 40 at work. We have had almost zero problems, and many of these machines get used for testing every day.

Apples do cost more to buy, but then it isn't put together as cheaply as possible like your garden variety commodity PC. Also, they hold their value very well. I bought a Macbook in 2007 (?) and sold it last fall for $500 on Craigslist.

Additionally, the new mac keyboards ROCK.

Steve