I would highly recommend you go with the highest Wacom model within your budget. The new Bamboo line is really nice, and the Intuos 3 line works really great with CorelDRAW.
Gérard
Hi East Texas,I work as an illustrator proffesionally in Sweden, on a daily basis, and use Wacom tablets for all my work both in CorelDRAW as well as Corel Photo-Paint. I do use a scroll mouse from Logitech to go with it. My suggestion is to only use Wacom tablets of the reason of its superior simplicity working with it. The Pen´s are great, both the standards and the others. I have come to use the Classic Pen and the Grip pens. All brushes I need is within the Programs so personally no need to by any extra pens.My wacom tablets are Wacom Intuos A5 and the Wacom Intuos3 A6 Wide. These sizes and tablets work great for my needs. And the Wacom Intuos3 A6 Wide aint to pricey either. If you dont like to by the Intuos3 line of tablets, then I can higly recomend Wacom Graphire 4? or the new Wacom Bamboo line. They are more than half the price, depending where you buy them. The new Bamboo line is really nice in that they give you the pressure sensitivity as well. I have tried all these tablets, and if it wasnt for reasons of resolution and pressure sensitivity I would have now hesitation in buying the Bamboo or Graphire. I have done a lot of proffesional work with them, when I didnt have my Intuos around. And have to borrow tablets. There is no quality differens in respect to DPI and PPI when working with CorelDRAW or Photo-Paint. Meaning when you create a document in CorelDRAW or Photo-Paint in let say 300 DPI/PPI and then draw with your wacom, Bamboo/ Graphire or Intuos, the quality in printed material is the same. Its when you like to get more out of your brush strokes in details you will see differences. For example if you in Photo-Paint or Corel Painter paint a "water colour", the details is better drawn/painted with a Intuos3.
If you work as an Art Director, Graphic Designer or making daily work that doesnt NEED to be extremely sensitive in details of the brushes, then its more than okey with a Bamboo or Graphire - or the Intuos. They are great to work with. And you DONT need to have the largest size of tablets either. I use to LOVE the large size of the tablets, but because I like to sit outside my studio, at cafés and work, the smaller size of Wacom Intuos3 A6 Wide, have come to be my favorite size. Easy to put in my back-pack together with my laptop. Sorry for any bad spelling or grammar, english is just my second language :-)Hope this helped a little