martinibuster - 7:23 pm on Jan 6, 2013 (gmt 0)

It depends on the graphics card and what you want to do with it. I don't game on laptops, however TigerDirect has an Asus 3rd gen i7 machine with a 2 GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 635M, a graphics card that does have linux drivers available for it. That machine, ASUS N56VJ-DH71, is currently for sale for $899. It comes stock with 8 GB of ram, upgradeable to 16 GB.

Asus is a reliable manufacturer, a very good brand. I've been very happy with their products for years. So for $400 less you get a better core i7 processor plus a better graphics cards than the Dell product.