+1 for Ben Oakes comments. I started out with a cheap Minoura magnetic turbo trainer and it was not great to use.

I eventually upgraded to the same Tacx Satori magnetic model that Ben mentions with the same result -massive improvement: far smoother and quieter, a good whack of intertia to keep it smooth, and very sturdy with a wide range of resitance settings. It lets you do everything from easy high speed spins on the easy settings through to very low cadence strength efforts at very high resistance. I got my Satori on sale at a Perth bike shop for $300, but the normal Perth retail seems to be a rather expensive $599. There are a couple of interstate offers on Bikechange for $300-400 or Wiggle seems to have them for around $260 shipped.

The Satori comes with a front wheel block, but I prefer the CycleOps rider block which is a bit higher (otherwise I’ve seen plenty of folk using old phone books).
I use a spare rear wheel with an indoor trainer tyre on turbo trainer and would recommend the same if you can. The trainer specific tyre runs a bit quieter and cooler and doesn’t seem to wear at all on the turbo, and it saves the road tyres.

Matthew