There are several brands of interface which I expect are equally as good, I was merely recommending Focusrite as both Andy and myself both have them, and they are so easy to use. Personally, I wouldn't be swayed by the included software with any of the brands, as what comes with it is usually it is the most basic version, and can be limited in what it can do, I think I would go for Reaper which is cheap and has many recommendations on the forum, or save up and buy a full version of your chosen DAW.
I also agree with Boydie, you should buy your interface first and try it on your current laptop, 4Gb of ram is enough for recording a few tracks, it only needs more if you are using a lot of tracks and plug ins, plus, if you still go down the desktop route, you will also have the laptop for portability.
Hope this helps, Mikey