Urrrrrrrrt--scratch that. A quick search on this forum AFTER I posted has led me to a solution that I think would work much better--building a Mini-ITX system that is dialed in for my particular needs. I was drawn to a laptop for the portability, but 95% of the time, I will be using the system at one of the two locations that has a good size monitor, and the other 5%, my tablet or Droid can make do.
My overall computing needs somewhat distilled: I mostly stream video/play DVD's, surf/email, Office/Project, and writing with Word. Don't really do any gaming (okay, not at all) and don't envision doing any kind of video editing.
However, I do still want access to a higher res GPU card (2560x1440) to fully fill and actually utilize a good 27" monitor. I've come across the "ASUS EAH6450 Silent/DI/1GD3(LP) Radeon HD 6450 1GB 64-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready Low Profile Ready Video Card" and due to its slim and fanless architecture, it would seeming to work well in a Mini-ITX system, and I think it would be a good candidate.
Any suggestions? Based on my NOT needing to have a gaming system, perhaps a low wattage Mini-ITX system would work well?