FWIW I ended up getting a nice little lightweight HP with all the specs I asked for apart from a halving from 512 to 256 for about 500 quid. Suits me fine and it'll take me an age to fill that capacity anyway.

After all these years of tech, it still doesn't do properly cheap computers for us non-geeks, does it? Five hundred quid to listen to music and piss about on forums still grates and I'd much rather have spent the extra on something actually enjoyable like a flight to Ouagadougou or somewhere.