I use a Inspiron 660 [1] and a Dell 2560x1440 27" Monitor. Total price was about $1500. Ordered online and it was at my door in about 10 days. I wanted something with the nvidia card (this is a must in my book as nvidia is well supported and dual monitored supported via DVI/VGA connections) since it works well with Linux. I'm running ubuntu and it works great. Monitor is awesome by the way :)

[1] http://www.dell.com/ca/p/inspiron-660/pd?refid=inspiron-660&...

[2] http://accessories.dell.com/sna/products/Monitors/productdet...