So here's the situation:

I currently have an IBM Thinkpad X40.
It's a fine little computer, but it's little.
It does 1024x768.

I need a computer that does 1600x1200.

I have 3 options (or more?):

1) New laptop. It would be a Dell 9400 (e1705 in the US), I expect.
2) New desktop with LCD. (I prefer option 3 to this, though, unless I'm missing something.)
3) New LCD and use it as a second screen for my existing laptop.

The extra twist: I plan to be travelling around May/June for quite a while, likely at least a year.
So at that point I expect I will want a laptop that can do 1600x1200 by itself.

I don't want to waste money, but I'm not looking to penny pinch either.

So Anything Goes, what are your suggestions, and why?

Just get the monitor...

My friend is upgrading my fiancee's desktop into a poker comp for me. We're looking at a new motherboard with a 3.2-3.4 Ghz Duo chipset, 2Gb ram, a 30gb 7200rpm SATA HD, and a new vid card (not high end) to support a 2nd monitor - all for <550CDN. I'll likely add a 21" LCD for ~350.

I would get a bigger HDD, that 30gb one would probably cost about $20-$30. I didn't even know they made them that small anymore. You can get a 120gb HDD for $50 or so which is a lot better value for money, plus it'd be good if you want to store your music on there, keep huge PT databases with backups, etc.

30gb 7200rpm SATA HD,

I hope that's a typo for a 300 GB HDD?

Here's what I went with:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Dual Core Processor Socket AM2 Windsor 2.0GHZ 2000FSB 2X512KB 90NM Retail Box
In stock 18462 1 $179.98
ASUS M2N-E ATX AM2 Nforce 570 Ultra PCI-E16 PCI-E4 2PCI-E1 3PCI SATA RAID Sound GBLAN Motherboard
Note: Combo Deal (18462)
In stock 18885 1 $112.36
XFX GeForce 7600 GS 500MHZ PCI-E 256MB 128BIT 900MHZ DDR2 Dual DVI-I HDTV Out Passive Video Card
In stock 18055 1 $139.98
Corsair Value Select PC2-5300 1GB 2X512MB DDR2-667 240PIN DIMM Dual Channel Memory Kit
In stock 18585 1 $116.15
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 160GB SATA 7200RPM 8MB Cache Hard Drive
In stock 18701 1 $72.98

SUBTOTAL: $621.45CDN