Time for a new laptop

I think any laptop with an Ivy Bridge processor will run DnD online fine. The sys specs for that game are pretty minimal.

MS Surface is a tablet, not a convertible laptop. More importantly it runs Windows RT, which won't be able to run DnD Online unless the game is added to the Windows Store.

I landed here after searching for "1366x768" and then "768 laptop". I'm theoretically in the market for a new laptop, and I'm trying to balance the obvious logistics. My current target is the Lenovo IdeaPad Y580, which is discussed in another thread. My question here, though, is: is it still the case, as noted earlier in this thread, that an i7 in a laptop is overkill?

I bet that's the case with a 1366x768 display and a 2GB GTX 660M GPU. Well, it might be better to say that such a laptop—i7 + 2GB GT 660m + 720p display—is poorly balanced. I could opt to get the 1080p display, but I'm already pushing my budget @ $900 or so. Thing is, I have already searched a bunch and found that I liked the less-expensive Acer Aspire V3-571G-6602 but it's out-of-stock at NewEgg and I can't find it elsewhere. Other variations of the 571G look good as well, and are more plentiful but are all 720p.

Nutshell: is it still the case, if ever it was, that an i7 in a laptop is likely to be overbalanced; and, is it recommended to bump up to 1080p rather than buy into 720p if the laptop's display will be the primary (likely only) display (i.e., I won't be using another display)?

Thanks to the variety of GWJers I've annoyed with my neurotic min-max specifications game, in the forum and on IRC. I've narrowed the general class I'm looking for to the domain defined by this search on Newegg. It basically boils down to this:

* Core i5 or i7
* 15-17" display
* 4+ GB RAM
* resolutions
*** 1366 x 768
*** 1600 x 900
*** 1900 x 1080
* dedicated GPU
* Nvidia 640M +
* AMD 7730 + (I think—their numbering is more confusing than Nvidia's)
* 500GB+ HD

Having spoke to a few folks on IRC, I'm leaning hard on the 1080p display with commensurate GPU. Thing is, my personal laptop has a 1280x800 display "powered" Intel GMA 950 GPU, and my work laptop also as a 1280x800 display "powered" by a Radeon Xpress X1270 GPU. Any laptop meeting the parameters of my Newegg search is going to blow away what I'm using now, even if there's ever-so-slightly less vertical space at 1366x768.

I thought I'd drop this search here on the off chance it might help other folks. I can't find a comparably powerful site for searching laptop options, and only just now saw the "power" search option at Newegg.

Still welcome recommendations and stuff, but at least I'm nominally paying something back to the community this time. If you have a mind for recommending something...

* Are there brands generally regarded to have greater build quality? Asus seems to pull ahead in this regard.
* Is there an easier way to find reviews than reading Newegg's, Amazon's, and Laptop Magazine's sites?
* Is the mobile CPU space as dominated by Intel Core processors as is the desktop? (Not trolling.)
* It seems that there's very little reason to get an i7 in a laptop, unless I'm anticipating needing four cores for running Kaggle competitions or something. I think I can settle for an Ivy Bridge i5, yes?

Much obliged and stuff!

Budget?? Cause the Razer Blade fits...

TheGameguru wrote:

Budget?? Cause the Razer Blade fits...

Trying for $750-850.

muraii wrote:
TheGameguru wrote:

Budget?? Cause the Razer Blade fits...

Trying for $750-850.

Look at the Lenovo Ideapad Y580

TheGameguru wrote:
muraii wrote:
TheGameguru wrote:

Budget?? Cause the Razer Blade fits...

Trying for $750-850.

Look at the Lenovo Ideapad Y580

That's my target at this point. I've been evaluating a bunch of others, but I keep coming back to it. Waffling on resolution. I guess I just need to look at some displays and get a sense of what fits best.