Don't think I'm being rude and ignoring the very useful responses and info here; I've been preoccupied again; other things just intervened.
However, I hesitated until I missed the sale offer, but on reflection I'm not too disappointed about that. Thanks to you especially Mittelwaechter for your profuse advice. The spec you question was taken from the website, I wouldn't know if it's right or wrong; either is a possibility. I did think about but discarded the idea of a tower system simply because it would be only for SH and I don't want a lot of kit I'm not going to use very frequently.
Yes, I can get a Win8 cd for less than a third of the cost of the laptops, and the XP set-up on my old MacBook worked without any noticeable problems so I am now wavering towards the Bootcamp solution. The reason I didn't just do that in the beginning is in my first post, but the comments here have gone a long way towards dispelling that uncertainty.
I looked at the Wine thing and given that Bootcamp is free (it's included in the Mac OS), I don't see the advantage, although the first pargraph of the About Wine info may as well be in sanskrit as far as my understanding goes, so I recognise that I may well be missing something.
As it's now that time of year again it will probably be January before I devote any more serious attention to this. Thanks again everyone.
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