From my research to date, the Lenovo y510p SLI for $969 seems to be my best bet. If you have other laptops in mind, please let me know! Thank you so much!
Here's the link to the y510p SLI:
http://www.newegg.com/...6834313740" class='ext_link'>http://www.newegg.com/...6834313740
I too would recommend Lenovo Ideapad Y510p laptop. It's got dual graphics card that is capable at rendering 2D / 3D models
http://www.amazon.com/...00HIY8VLQ/
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834313740
Specs:
- 4th generation Intel Core i7 processor for quick and fast processing
- 8GB RAM
- 1TB HDD + 8GB SSD
- Dual NVIDIA GeForce GT 755M SLI graphics card
- Integrated 720p HD webcam, HDMI out, two USB 2.0 ports, one USB 3.0 port
- Windows 8.1
There's NVIDIA GeForce GT 755M SLI graphics card that plays all latest games at high to ultra settings. Open it's specs at http://www.notebookcheck.net/...493.0.html and scroll down to 'Game Benchmarks'
There's red backlit keyboard to easily work in low light environment, HDMI out port to view laptop's screen on external TV or monitor and HD webcam to chat with friends/family via Skype
The G431 cpu is good one. Similarly, the computer with 8 Gb ram and 4GB processor and 560 GB hard disk