What comes in the box?

you should get the printer with the boroglass and some ABS and PLA filament and USB cable.

A few reccomendations:

if you have the option MAC or PC WIN XP -WIN7 i would suggest the MAC the Win version requires a special com port driver which you can easily get but still has had some issue but once installed and working they both seem to do just fine.
ON the USB connection go directly from the PC to the printer no hubs.
If you are plugged into a power strip make sure it is a surge protector type.
START with PLA first it is the easiest to get started with ABS usually requires a bit more finesse and has some thing you need to do that may be a bit confusing for first time printers
Also do not set any extruder temps above 230 it is the MAX it will handle going above this can cause major issues to occur with PLA you should never need to go this high anyway I usually print with PLA at 200 and 190 but as you will learn each filament is different and you will have to know how to set the right temps

Here is the best first object to print
a 15mm cube it will give you alot of information about how things are setup for your particular printer

If you need further help you can PM me here or if you use SKYPE you can send me a request Jeff Janes or jj.tesseract

 

I would go with the mac it will be easier everything just worked on mine no need for special drivers and such
As far as PLA goes you are right It really becomes your unique decision of. You will soon learn that different thing work better with PLA some better with ABS and then on top of that some print at different temps better than others some change in their appearance based on temps some seem to print less stringy than others some also are purer meaning you do not have to deal with imperfections or impurities in the filament itself such as a more stable width throughout etc I recently fond some knew filament that I personally really like but you and you prints may hate. What I would do is wait until you get your printer learn what you do and dont' like about how the PLA you will get acts with the way you print and what you print and then find out if people know of filament that works better in ways that you don't like about the current one.

I am sorry to be cryptic but there are a lot of things to go with and many different opinions.

For instance this new stuff is really inexpensive comparatively and with single thing some people think it can't be that good but for what I want I think it prints great some of my best prints actually but my printer is pretty tuned in

 

I get mine from a hobby store and I am trying to become a reseller for them so give me a few days on where but just so yo u know I bought (6) 1 kg rolls at 26.40 each which is a pretty good price and I picked my printer up locally so I am not sure why the weight may be that high