Wops. I didn't see this thread so I posted on the PC one.
Here's my post over there:
I got my hands on some $1400 and I wanna buy a laptop to use for some light gaming and 3d modelling while I'm not at home. Ideally, I'd buy a MacBook Pro because the build quality seems quite good, and I definitely would love to try out the Mac OS, but for $1400 I can only get my hands on the 13" MBP so yeah.. screw it
I've checked out some of the Dell stuff and their XPS series seems quite good, but I've not read many reviews about them.
Also, I'm still not sure if I should go with a 15" or 17" screen. The 15" is better for portability reasons, but that seems about it. Playing and doing some light 3D modelling stuff on the 17" screen is quite more appealing, and I know I can find some backpacks that let you fit a 17" laptop and some extra stuff (like notebooks, one or two books, etc..).
Also, I'm in Japan so none of the deals over in the US apply to me. Btw, here's what the Dell laptop would look like if I bought it over Dell Japan:
CPU 第二世代インテル® Core i7-2630QM プロセッサー 2.00 GHz、Turbo Boost 2.0時2.90 GHz
OS Windows(R) 7 Home Premium 正規版 64ビット(日本語版

(OSメディアは添付されません

Memory 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3 SDRAM メモリ(1333MHz)
HDD 640GB SATA HDD (7200回転

光学ドライブ DVDスーパーマルチドライブ(Roxio Starter付属

グラフィック 3G NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 555M、Optimus搭載
キーボード バックライトキーボード (英語

変更
TVチューナ TVチューナーなし 変更
ワイヤレスLAN インテル® Centrino® Wireless-N 1030 with Bluetooth v3.0+HS
I didn't translate most of the Japanese stuff because I think it's pretty easy to understand anyway. This PC would cost me 109,800 Yen. I can either improve the screen to a 1920x1080 resolution screen, or improve the RAM from 4GB to 6GB. I don't have the money for both.