New laptop and Desktop; Suggestions please

[Piper]

Well just a little background info so you could base your suggestions. I am a 4th year marketing major at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. I work on tons of projects both in school and outside of school which require me to be able to run multiple programs as well as running flash coding programs.

What I was looking for was suggestions for a laptop (can be any company) which would fit in a budget of about 1000-1300$ as well as a desktop that can range around that price as well. Add-on suggestions for stuff like wireless mouse for the laptop and keyboards would be welcome as well as I have a limited knowledge of any of these products.

Thank you for your input, and to anyone who accuses me of not using the search function. I did. Most of the posts are specific to what people want, and none are too too similar.

Thanks in advance.

[Nattack]

futureshop.ca

tigerdirect.ca

newegg.ca, its all out there.

if all your doing is programming flash and no games, a brandname bundle is fine. in my experience, dont go with HP/Compaq. while stylish (excluding anything compaqs ever made), they fall apart like metaphorical peanut brittle under a metaphorical hammer. ive had the best luck with Dell and Acer actually. this Dell Dimension im using right now is nearly 10 years old and runs quite well for what its worth, surely couldnt run crysis but its been reliable.

otherwise, id suggest to you my current dream computer with all the bells, whistles and casemods with multiple screens and a fancy desk ive got drafted in my todo bin

[Piper]

The thing that really set it all off today is when I tried to load Aion and my comp literally shit the brick. I've never had a desktop that could run any game (mainly FFXI) at wicked FPS and nice graphics. I need it to be able to withhold a ton of projects, ranging from website skeletons to huge files of graphics that my business partner sends me.

[fishstix]

It's always hard to shop for someone else about laptops since in the end, it's just about your preference on specs, style, and cost. So I'm not saying, go get this laptop, but as a suggestion for something to look for: I came across this one during my daily visit to bensbargains.net Asus G71GX-RX05 Laptop Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 2.53GHz, 17.1'' WXGA, 6GB, 500GB HDD, HDMI, Webcam, Windows Vista Home Premium Edition 64-bit - Refurbished - G71GX-RX05 - Buy.com It's affordable while being decently strong, even for gaming.

There's a few downsides though, it's big, heavy, while the screen is 17.1in, the resolution is only 1440x900, 5400rpm hard drive, this particular one is refurbished, and probably doesn't ship to canada easily There's also customizable laptops you can order like a Sager. Personally, I also have a 3 yr old Dell Vostro 1500 that works great (except the battery died).

For a desktop, if you're really not into building it yourself, you can customize a build at ibuypower.com or cyberpower.com (again, not sure about shipping). Newegg carries some of their models. ASUS also makes pretty decent gaming computers if you have to buy from best buy or something.