This is the modern equivalent of my laptop:
http://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-VN7-791G-76Z8-17-3-Inch-Gaming/dp/B00WJSQREY/ref=sr_1_1?
It has a 17 inch screen, quad core Intel Core i7 processor, plenty of RAM, a huge slow hard drive, good discrete graphics, and a DVD burner. The only difference between it and mine, is mine has GT640 graphics to its 960GTX and i7-2670QM processor to its i7-4720HQ. Oh, and the newer one has a backlit keyboard, better battery life, higher quality display (I have 1600x900, this one is 1920x1080), and costs less. (mine was $950 new I got it refurb from Acer on eBay for $619, this new one is $999 on Amazon, close enough).
The other cool thing about my laptop is it has two 500GB hard drives. Both slow 5400rpm models. But what I intend to do here is swap them BOTH for 240-256GB SSD's which can be had nowadays for $80-90 each. On one drive I have the original Windows 7 install and on the other is Xubuntu 14.04 LTS. I'll clone those to the new drives and save the old ones in external cases for monthly backups.
My current Windows install uses 150GB of the 500GB drive and my Xubuntu install uses 64GB of the 500GB drive. I'll have plenty of room left over and I'll even be able to duplicate a lot of the files I use most between them.
I'm considering partitioning the Xubuntu one and putting Windows 10 on that SSD. Then have three OS's to choose from. That way if I can't play GTA IV or LA Noire or Driver SF in Windows 10, I can uninstall Steam from W10 and go back to using W7 for gaming.