My Dell desktop's 500GB HD just crashed! Since it is 3.5 yrs old I don't want to put any money into it. Seems like I should just replace it. I have two major questions.

I currently have a desktop basically for home use and a laptop I take with me in when I travel. I'm thinking that this might be a good time to drop the desktop and switch to a laptop that I could use at home with a laptop docking station and also take it with me when I travel. I would use the docking station at home to attach my two monitors and a full keyboard, printer, scanner at home as well as a couple of external hard drives. I have thousands of photos and use Photoshop Elements and ProShow Producer (for slide shows), Office, Quicken, etc.

Any comments on this plan will be appreciated.

You need to do your homework when selecting a docking station. Not all support two monitors.

We use docking station in the office. I like it for some reasons.
1. it provide space below as it will elevate when docked.
2. provide additional ports. and will save laptop's port from getting worn out.
3. provide extended monitor.

It will do the job you want. Only the latitude and precision of the models have connection options - none of the consumer-level models (Inspiron / Vostro / XPS / Studio / Studio XPS) do.