Howdy linux fans

I am shopping for a new Linux laptop. I'm currently running LinuxMint on a 7 year old Sony viao laptop. Runs fine, but the HW is reaching the end of it's useful life. This laptop won't be traveling much (only around my house).

Most of the consumer grade laptops I've found only come with Windows 7/8. I'd rather not have to pay for an OS I'm not going to use but it's not a dealbreaker if I do. Dell has a few laptops that come with Ubuntu, but they aren't very appealing (and they're expensive).

So I'm looking for a laptop that has most of the following (budget ~$1000):

3rd or 4th Gen i5 or i7 processor
At least 4GB DDR3 RAM (linux typically requires less than Windows/Mac)
High resolution screen (i.e. 1920x1080 or better)
13-15 in screen
SSD drive (at least 128GB)
I'd prefer discrete video, but like to avoid nvidia (b/c they don't place nice with Linux, yet)

Open to suggestions, thanks for your time.