Just 10 years ago, Back To School means getting your kids new clothes, new notebook (the one you write on with a pen or pencil), new school bags and other stationaries. While sending your university bound kids would include helping them to find a new apartment or helping them with the big move. Things have changed today and in additions to the normal back to school items, it also means a new set of electronic gadgets before sending them off.

For most university students, a computer, cellphone, printers, or even an iPOD is part of the shopping list. Therefore, we tasked our shopper with $1000 shopping money to come up with a list of electronics that is a must have.

Computer is one of the most difficult item to shop for in any budget, we expect a notebook computer to last a general study student for a period of two to three years. Consider the SONY VGN-NR430DS featuring a 15.4" screen with Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core T2390 processor (1.86GHz ) with 2GB of system memory and 160GB of hard disk space and a CD/DVD writer plus an array of built-in memory card slots, USB and Firewire ports, paired with both wired and wireless network connection. This unit retails for $699.99.

With a computer, you will need a printer for those last minute term paper printing. We recommend the Brother MFC-465CN multifunction colour printer combing a printer, a scanner and fax function in a space saving footprint.

The Brother unit is network ready, which means it can easily be hooked up without a tangle of cables. Setup is easy and takes less then 10 minutes. There is no need to worry for the less network savvy person as the setup CD takes you through the setup step by step setup and will find the printer for you. The colour ink is self contained in separate ink cartridges meaning you only need to replace what you use.

The unit comes with memory card reader for CF, SD, and Memory Stick allowing direct printing of photos without the need of a computer and you can preview the photo with the built-in LCD monitor. As an added bonus, you can access the memory cards plugged into the printer via your computer and treating it as a memory card reader. The unit comes with a very handy combined paper and 4x6 photo paper tray which makes switching between the two a snap.

While fax seems to be outdated but in reality it is not. Fax is still one of the most convenient form of sending printed document directly to the person especially when a signature is needed in a hurry or sending sensitive document and not having to worry about getting lost in email or trapped in the junk email box.

You should not be surprised for having the needs to send forms or other documents to your kids far away while email or having them running to the closest Kinko's store is not practical. With the Brother unit, faxing is as simple as pressing the button. You can send and receive via a connected PC or as a complete stand alone unit. The preview monitor allows you to preview incoming faxes before it is printed.

Print quality in photo printing and in normal printing is good and colour is vibrant when using Brother's photo paper. Access to control panel, power buttons and even the ink cartridge are conveniently located. MFC-465CN supports Windows (XP and Vista including 64-bit) and Mac based computers. It's simple and works without any fuzzy.

The scanner function is easy and quality is excellent and will satisfy most users. The Control Center software takes care of all the settings and will transfer the scanned images to your choice of application such as Photoshop.

The Brother unit retails for $129 and with rebate and promotions, it could be as low as $89. Brother MFC-685CW having the same features and incorporating a wireless network connection, a phone handset and a message center retails for a cost of $199 or as low as $159 after rebate and promotions.

Networking the new computer and printer is a breeze with the D-Link WBR-1310 Internet router supporting both wireless and wired computers or printers with a 4-ports built-in networking ports. The D-Link router allows you to share the Internet connection with a built-in firewall to keep hackers away and supports Windows or Mac based computers. D-Link WBR-1310 retails for $54.

Let face it, falling asleep during a long lecture is un-avoidable. With the SONY ICD-UX70S digital recorder, the excuses of "I can't remember" because of falling asleep or not paying attention would be eliminated with the 290-hours recording capability. The SONY digital recorder also functions as a MP3 player for your tunes. SONY ICD-UX70S retails for $109.99.

The final tap $952.95, with tax it totals $1,076.87.