Best gaming laptop under $1,500?

Hey, I'm looking to drop about $1,000 on a new laptop. I'm stuck between the new Acer Helios 300 and the Lenovo Y540. Specs are basically identical, but the Y540 has a 12ms response time while the Helios supposedly hits 3ms (allegedly—I can't find any official benchmarks yet...) though it's also $667 more expensive.

There’s an i5 version of the Helios right around that $1,000 mark, but I'm worried about the CPU bottlenecking. Is it even worth it?

Helios 300 i7: https://www.amazon.com/laptops/helios-i7

Lenovo Y540: https://www.bestbuy.com/lenovo-y540

Helios 300 i5: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/helios-i5

Look, an extra $200 isn't nothing, but the screen matters to me. Plus, the Helios seems to have better cooling (running about 5-6°F cooler than the Y540 with the same undervolt). On the flip side, I can't disable Optimus on the Helios, so the GPU always runs through the Intel chip, whereas the Lenovo lets you bypass it and run straight off the Nvidia card. I've also heard rumors that Lenovo is dealing with some BIOS and fan speed issues right now (maybe once they patch that, the temp difference won't matter as much).

Help me pick one, or if anyone has a better suggestion? Or should I just wait a month or two for the Black Friday sales?

So, I was recently checking out some $8k laptops, and I finally ended up pulling the trigger on that predator for $3.50. Honestly, the price jump for the i7 version felt like way too much to justify.

To be real, the difference between the red predator and the blue one is only about $1000, even though they're rocking the exact same specs. I kind of feel like a bit of an idiot for being willing to pay that extra premium just for slightly better cooling, a nicer screen, and those blue keys.