My friend recently got an alienware laptop... the thing is a monster with two 7950's in sli running in there and the heat it gives off burns my hand if i put it close... but the funny thing is....
The keyboard and back panel look like any other dell laptop, rofl... i busted his balls for it...Still a nice laptop though..
Basically i only like alienware desktops (like my friend zerodayatk) for the wire managment they do... because when i build my comps the wires are always all over the place... but in his sexy alienware they are out of site behind the mobo.
Dell just makes cheappy comps and bought up alienware unfortunatley... i heard rumors that there xps gaming stuff is just ugly looking alienware.. which wouldnt suprise me because all the parts are the same except the case if you were to build it yourself.
emachines always made me happy because i could con them into giving me free parts when i complained... lol but they really were a ****** company...
oh and i hate hp...
Best way to go is custom build... you can take pride in your system and self troubleshoot it yourself better than u could with some pre-built system.
edit: It's good to have a friend with you on your first build though because the nervousness i had with the money i was putting out and the future hopes and dreams of my system was killing me and i could of sworn i was literally shaking... rofl