Thanks all particularly Mandi your advise sounds right down my ally.
I think organisation is the key right now, I can always sort the crud out later, will use Elements initially as I WILL get lightroom later.
Dual screen will be handy, I can use the LCD TV, I found this out he other day, will let me drap and drop to folders easier, Thanks Dave.
The Picasa recomendations help too as I was struggling with files on my netbook in particular displying RAW files and this seems just the ticket.
Keep adding to this thread as alot of good info has been posted already here and a helpfull subject to get to the results of our shooting!
Something to add: How do your online photos fit into this framework, do you convert one at a time as required or convert favs for display on net and digital photo frames, emailing and the like?