I have a Alienware M17x R3 for 3 years now. Very happy owner, I love the idea of a laptop, that can be upgraded. However... I would consider eurocom now, because, at least in Europe, you get better support (Dell has great support in service, but not in upgrading, community and so on) even with upgrades. I changed my GPU from ATI to nVidia and it was a pain to get it running. It was bought from eurocom, but they did not want to support me here in Europe - had to contact only online support in Canada (from where I bought the GPU... support via e-mail kinda sucks..). To sum up: - I have been considering also a third option to go back to desktop - if the GPU could not have been upgraded I would definitely do so - main reason: with 5+ kilograms, most of the time it is a desktop... so really consider if you will be attending many gaming events where you take your laptop with you Cheers