I think this buy all depends on your wife. What do you mean by video editing? Home videos? What? Cause 6 cores can render a video really fast and that GPU will surly help. If you think this is something she will be doing every now and then, then get a different computer. You do not need 6 cores, heck you dont even need 4 cores and that video card is over kill if shes only does it every now and then. Its a good deal but you can find something cheaper that will meet your needs. If I wear you I would go with a i5 setup or a CHEAP quad core AMD set up. AMD CPU's are cheaper then Intel. Not as good but your only surfing the net. You certainly do not need 8gb of ram. 4gb is all you need. You dont need a raid setup unless you need to back up highly important files, pics, ect...

Update : I still haven't bought anything....

1 - I can't make my mind up...

2 - The wife had minor surgery and has been off work for a week and will be off for another week ( recovering nicely btw ) and has been on the couch using my laptop. So now, she thinks she would like a laptop of her own.

This would possibly be in addition to the a new desktop pc.

I'm thinking of getting A Dell Inspiron Desktop to replace the old XPS, or I might just go with another
XPS, decisions, decisions....

Now for the new laptop, I'm thinking of giving her this one and buying a new one for me.

I currently have an 17" HP - g60 series, Intel Dual Core processor, 2.0 ghz, 4gb mem, 250 hard drive, pretty nice set up. I've had it about 1 1/2 years and it's been excellent. only paid $399 for it,

I'd like to get an Alienware 17" laptop or maybe a 17" XPS.... I dunno, just kind of talking it out here
in this thread, I'll be sure to update and let you all know what I get.

Please don't buy an Alienware. Nowadays they are just a branch of Dell, and you can build your own for a fraction of the cost. I spent about $1300 on my computer; something equivalent would be in the seven to ten thousand dollar range from some enthusiast website for spoiled rich kids. I can tell you how to put it together (Trust me it is very easy, the hardest part is the power supply and I can talk you through that via email or messages). So many people are intimidated by building their own, but don't let it intimidate you. I read through the recommendations thus far, and for the most part people are on the right track.

I seen that you were about to purchase a laptop. I hope I'm not too late. The Dell Inspiron is a very good laptop. I have two of them at the moment. You can pick one up at your local pawn shop for around $300, and upgrade the Processor and RAM yourself. It is extremely easy to do that on a Dell Inspiron laptop. All you need is a small Phillips head screwdriver. You can even put a Solid State Drive (SSD) in it if you wanted. My wife commandeered the laptop, but I don't mind ever since I completed my desktop. Whatever you decide I hope it works out for you and your family. If you decide you would like to take me up on my offer, I will be here.

To the gentlemen in the NVIDIA/AMD/ATI discussion,

It really matters what you are using your machine for. It is a FACT that NVIDIA performs the best on the greater majority of benchmarks, and most people would agree the engineering behind SLI is superior to CrossfireX.

I have used both. If you are a serious gamer, NVIDIA is to Intel as AMD and ATI are to AMD. However no matter how many reports and benchmarks the web has to offer, people will always buy what they want. A loyal AMD fan that waited over a year for the bulldozer release will not care about the disconcerting reviews out that basically place it as competition for the i5 2500k rather than the i7 2600k "killer" it was intended to be. There are only two or three benchmarks I can think of where the 8-core monster is superior, but it really doesn't matter to the average Joe. Like FPS on games...some guys will upgrade their video card because they aren't happy with 65 FPS on their new game, but in reality the human eye cannot discern the difference above 60 FPS. Some say 30 FPS is the limit, but games are much different than movies. It's all about what you want, what you can afford, and what makes you happy.

Just my take on it. Thank you for reading.

You are correct and I agree; building your own is cheaper by exponential magnitudes...but the gentleman said he wanted a laptop. I personally do not know anyone that builds them. I would be able to make a "Frankenstein" laptop with parts from different PCs, but nothing special. Sometimes mobility comes with sacrifice. I respect your opinion that AMD outperforms Intel by far and wide while running cooler in the process - even though I strongly disagree with it. If only they had been able to release the bulldozer to compete against the first generation of Sandy Bridge last year... Once software writers tailor their code to support all 8 cores...I would buy the AM3 FX Octo-Core myself, for sure. Running cooler? That all depends on the system. At this very moment, 1911 EST, my CPU is 26 Centigrade. I am running an i7 2700k at the stock turbo frequency of 3900Mhz with a fairly cheap (70 bucks) water cooler. When I go above 5000MHz it does get toasty!

I was checking out all the world records that AMD holds with the Bulldozer, and I can't find an answer to the question I am hoping you could help me with. Ok, on the CPU-Z Validation World Record page, it shows the screenshot of their frequency and other details. Why is CPU-Z reporting 2 cores and 2 threads active when it is an 8 core? Did they shut the other cores off in BIOS in order to save heat and just push all the power to 2 cores? I specialize in intel chips so please let me know how/why they do that and I will be grateful.

ElevatedOne - Was I too late on the laptop? If you got the XPS, how do you like it? That is a sweet deal you had locked on. I believe XPS used to be an Alienware model back before Dell absorbed them. 1GB of dedicated Video Memory is INSANE on a laptop. Must know how you like it.

Ok, I went with a Laptop over a desktop pc.

I got the HP Pavillion : dv6-6117dx

AMD Quad-Core A8-3500M Accelerated Processor with AMD Radeon HD 6620G discrete-class graphics

4GB DDR3 SDRAM

500GB hard drive

Beats Audio -

Built-in fingerprint reader

and some other "goodies".... So far so good, up and running, tweaked and optimized, updates dl'd.

Originally posted by elevatedone

AMD Quad-Core A8-3500M Accelerated Processor with AMD Radeon HD 6620G discrete-class graphics

LOL. Oh the funny names companies use for what is basically sh1te.

That said, for what you play, you now have way more power than you need.