You ought to expect to spend ~$750USD (or equivalent) at the very least. Probably more like he neighborhood of about twice that.
Seems like if it has an nVidia GeForce GT 620 to 650 graphics card, it should do for what you want. You can make custom orders for something with an i5. Any stronger is unnecessary imo and it adds cost. Plus it's nice to be able to switch from graphics card to onboard processor's graphics--you can't do that with i7. i7 is only really necessary for hyperthreading and programmers on the cutting edge of making stuff where you'd really be better off with a desktop in that regard.
The review of this one has an i7 unfortunately... But it seems okay I guess...
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasoneva...ing-powerhouse
Some other article...
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/64...ng-power-house
My dad just got one from costco. HP, Core i5 8GB, though I'm not sure what kind of graphics. Multimedia.
I remember was able to run KOTOR on my Sony Vaio 2003 PCG-FRV5, but it REALLY stressed the thing out since it was the most basic ATI radeon graphics card.
