I'm looking to pickup a new tablet and was wondering if anyone had any good recommendations?

The newest and biggest Intuos3 you can find.

I use a Wacom Intuos 9x12 tablet. Although I highly recommend it - perhaps knowing what you are going to use your tablet for would be helpful as well as how much you want to spend approximately. Thanks!

Well, I've been doing a lot of drawing since I was in high school, and a lot of website photoshop work, but I've never really played around a lot with concept art. After watching Cabrera's video's it has really inspired me to start playing with photoshop and doing concept art.

I use a 9x12 Intuos3... my first tablet (3 years ago?) was a tiny Graphire, I thought it was cool. I then got a giant 12x12 Intuos, which served me well for a year. Last year I upgraded to a 9x12 Intuos3 (my Intuos broke :(), and its been awesome, well worth the relatively high price-point. Tablets are vital pieces for any serious digital artist. I would say a nice tablet takes precedent over any actual hardware component... I'd take an Intuos3 and 6800GT over a Graphire and 8800, if it came down to it, because the tablet is something you cannot live without.

I have a Wacom Intuos 2 6x8 tablet and I wouldn't give it up for much of anything. It makes both digital painting and vector pen work so much quicker and it works great for 3D modeling as well.

I think that this is the perfect size. Wacom makes bigger ones, but unless you're already used to making really large brush strokes, I don't think there is much reason to get a bigger one.

I used both a 12x18 Intuos and a 4x5 graphire. I was expecting to find the graphire completely horrible compared to the Intuos but it wasn't the case. Since it's just for playing around and I don't know how much desk space you have, I would suggest something like a 6x8 graphire. You get a decent size and it's quite cheaper than an Intuos while being as reliable. You can also go on the Wacom website and do a little side by side comparison.

If you have never tried to use a tablet, maybe you could try to find a store that has them on display and give it a try.

I use a 6x8 intuos3 and I haven't had any problems with it.

I am glad I didn't went for the 9x12, it might have been more tiresome for my wrist ;)

And if you dare to dream, you could go for the Cintiq. [grin]

I have an Intuos3 6x8, the tablet's more than big enough for anything I'm used to doing on paper, and the extra slider bars and buttons make all of my regular photoshop tools that much quicker to access.

I'd only suggest the 9x12 if you have

1) plenty of room on your desk/drawing surface
2) the money to throw around

But if quality is an issue for you, definitely go intuos3 over graphire3.