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A desktop is likely going to be cheaper and more reliable than a laptop for the reasons that the other guys mentioned. Basically, with a laptop you are stuffing a lot of the same gear (well not exactly - they tend to use lower power components etc, but close enough) as you would in a desktop, but it is jammed into a case with relatively poor airflow and heat dissipation.
However desktops are not portable. You can't take them to a lecture and type notes etc. You also can't use it at the library or to a friend's place.
Obviously the best way is to get a good desktop, and a lower-end laptop to do the things that you need portability for. This is what I have, but this is also the most expensive option.
As far as graphics cards go, for the type of things that you say you need it for, you don't need a very impressive graphics card. The higher end graphics cards benefit from mainly improved 3D graphics capabilities. Just don't get on-board graphics because this uses system memory for its graphics.
If you don't want to play games, then something like the 8600 series from NVidia (they have desktop and laptop versions) would be fine. If you want to play games, try the 8800GT if you go desktop. Good performance, but quite inexpensive.
Get at least 2 gigs of memory if you are going Vista. If you plan to use Photoshop intensively (several large photos open at once), 4 gigs wouldn't go astray (and memory is really cheap now).
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