Well, with alienware you're sure to get a nice package. Nice case, nice workmanship, nice support, and probably some components that you might not be able to source elsewhere.

However, depending on your preferences that could also be a bad thing. You don't get a lot of choice in components, and their prices are hugely inflated compared to if you bought the stuff off newegg and assembled it yourself. My personal feeling is that they're rich boy's toys who just want to plug and play, and if that's what you're looking for that's fine, but you will miss a lot of the "experience" and pride in owning a PC you've built, maintained and bled (literally) into. Going custom is also a lot cheaper.

Alienware ain't going to be doing XP either, at least not for much longer. Microsoft has ended XP's resale license, so PC companies will only be able to sell Vista now.

Do not buy a dell unless you really like India.

When I was looking at an Alienware laptop (Generation before the current ones) I came across quite a few blogs about the support team, of which, most had been instructed to invalidate their warranty in one way or another. It was subtle, and only picked up by those who actually read the warranty, but that put me right off.

That, and Alienware are owned by Dell. Voodoo are owned by HP - Comically the Blackbird 002 appeared around the same time.

Personally, I'd suggest a self build. Simply because you get to know EXACTLY what went where, and why. It may be a lot more work on your part, but honestly, it's not as difficult as it sounds. Just needs some preparation and thought. It should, if you do it right, work out a lot cheaper too.

Despite Alienware now being owned by Dell, I will never purchase another Alienware. I would by a Dell (from the Small Business line) over an Alienware any day, which is what I did when I had to replace the Alienware.

My $3k laptop began failing within about six months of receiving it; 18 months later, it's unusable. I continually received horrid tech support and shitty customer service. Despite my laptop's hardware failing while under warranty, they said that they couldn't do anything because it was no longer under warranty (with the implication that the hardware failed after warranty). I can't install Windows on that laptop (it refuses two valid, legally obtained license keys) and I could install Ubuntu, but it would have a hardware access layer failure within five minutes of booting and crash. I had to usually boot the laptop on battery power because it would "overheat" and shut down otherwise.

On the other hand, I heard that someone managed to drop their Alienware laptop out of a second story window and Alienware replaced it no questions asked.

The only Dells I've ever had a problem with were the ones at my high school. I don't even want to think about the sort of abuse those machines must have received.

The Dells that I have had at home are troopers. We have a Dell Dimension 4600 or 4800; I opened it up to clean it around two years ago and I was amazed the damn thing hadn't overheated with the amount of dust and dog fur that were in it. My mom's old laptop (not sure if it was an Inspiron or a Latitude) ran for at least 4 years (though, it was given/loaned to my brother's girlfriend, so I have no idea what's happened to it since). My mom's current Inspiron laptop has worked wonderfully. My Latitude D830 has held up quite nicely in the 9 or 10 months I've had it.

I don't think I can fairly compared my Alienware to my Dell; the Alienware has a single core Intel (2.26Ghz) and the Dell has a Core2 Duo (T7500, 2.20Ghz). The Dell overall runs better, and runs a hell of a lot cooler. The only problem I have had with my Dell is software related and seems to have something to do with Visual Studio.

Alienware is crap. It's over priced and under powered.

Well, why are you against building your own? Afraid of breaking something?
Well, nowadays building a custom PC is pretty easy. I made my own during the summer, ordered parts from NewEgg. And Voila my very first custom PC.
If you're "scared", there are lots of guides that can help you on choosing the right parts, and even tell you what to do step by step .
And I'm pretty sure that we can help you with that also, hmm?