CPUs & Graphics cards: suitability for LL

[m654321]

In the wake of the mysterious early death of my gaming laptop (Asus G750JS), after 3 years and 10 months, I'm considering replacing it with a new, more robust system to run with LL. It was an i7-HQ4710 machine with dual graphics (Intel HD 4600 & nVidia GTX870).

It would seem that a PC Tower wins over a Laptop for cost, better cooling, and flexibility for upgrading, but loses out on its greater power consumption, and lack of portability. Of course no system is perfect, and inevitably there will be some element of compromise. The other consideration is what CPU and graphics card am I going to choose for the replacement system, given that it will be used for occasional gaming (e.g. Supertuxkart, Roblox)?

Processors
Intel CPUs appear to run cooler at faster speeds, though are more expensive than say AMD ones. As well as the greater cost, they seem to come with some other issues, e.g. the complication of UEFI, as well as the Spectre & Meltdown issues (though these now seem to be patched).  Given this, would AMD, or other processor brands, be potentially more trouble-free with LL?

Graphics Cards
I've read around that nVidia, in general, doesn't play very well with Linux, and Linus Torvald appears to have strong views on the subject! That said, I've found that nVidia does appear to give very good quality graphics, where Intel graphics may struggle or not work at all. However, there are other choices out there, e.g. AMD graphics - Radeon cards seem very popular but do they work well with Linux, and more specifically with LL.

Hardware Database for LL
To help make an informed decision about a CPU/Graphics setup, I browsed the LL hardware database at https://www.linuxliteos.com/hardware.php  The only snag with these data is that no personal comment is given, by the user, as to how well the CPU/Graphics hardware worked with LL. For example, a while ago, I installed the LL3 series on a Samsung NP-N145 Plus netbook with an Intel Atom [email protected] CPU (2 threads), uploaded the data to the hardware database, but later had to abandon LL3 on that netbook, as it lagged significantly.

I'm in no rush to go out and buy a replacement system (quite happy to wait a year) as, given how much these things cost & £ being a bit tight generally, I want to make an informed decision for something that will last. Any feedback much appreciated as ever ... 

Cheers
Mike