could you define what you need this for a little better?

jason had the right idea when he was going for the utility of the software. to take that a bit further what hardware do you need?

ex. flash card reader for your camera? extra usb for in the field hardware attachments (scanner, printer, webcam for those "special" home videos for your not-so-for-everyone site)

I think most laptops will be able to do what you want. The tradition for graphics "pros" is that they are mac users. This image is kept up by low student prices for laptops at art colleges that apple discounts.

I'm pretty sure that one can be a good internet graphic designer without all the fancy proprietary stuff (pay software, etc.) If I were to go into this field I'm pretty sure I would go the route of what is most comfortable with me.. open source (think gimp, blender, ajax, mysql apache).

are you getting this for yourself?