Why go Intel?
My Phenom 955 @ 3.6GHz (for most things, except winrar extraction) kicks the Core i5 in the nuts. Even on some games like Far Cry 2 my 955 preforms better then the i7. Google the benchmarks. (yeah the i7 IS a better chip then my 955, but the performance difference is so small/not noticeable, so the additional $200+ is not worth it at all).
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/88?vs=288
Alienware is terrible and over-hyped. Build your own rig, cheaper and you get to decide how to allocate your funds.One of my favourite Pc's and Laptops brand Ever
http://www.alienware.com/Landings/desktops.aspx
:sun::sun::sun: