If you wanted a desktop you can scramble a computer for better worth with customizations for your self, compared to the stock models.
Now
I have a few questions that can help you with your next steps:
Are you looking for a desktop or laptop?
Do you want a base model?
Do you want to build one from scratch? (assuming you prefer desktop)
Or do you want to start with a base model and upgrade it? (Desktop mostly)
Now leaving those questions aside, I went on canada computers and found an Asus base model, the retail price is around $890, pre-HST:
http://www.canadacomputers.com/sysconfigure.php?sys=5
Here are a few pros to this: The base model is very decent, it is not time consuming compared to building a computer from scratch. On top of that if you prefer, there are upgrade options, with several of them very good value, they are around 10 dollars, including RAM speed upgrade, HDD size upgrade (doubled). There are a few other upgrades as well and they are decent.
Cons to this computer: The base price is around 890 pre-HST so it might go over your budget.
Another easier way if you didn't want to read some a LOT and actually reading about specific computer parts, there is a site called
http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS SITE TO EVERYONE
What this site does, is that it allows you to start building your personal computer from scratch, it includes a category for every piece of hardware in your PC, you can select from a wide range (almost every piece of available hardware out there), and it will automatically search for the best price in Canada, from all retailers, including those online. I have included a screenshot below that is the list its self.