Upgrading my Computer

Alienware sucks. Sorry to blow it to you, it's made by Dell so it will fall apart in a year or two. I have a refurbished MacBook 08' and I've had it for a year and a half and its just now getting a little slow, but I could easly make it faster. Plus it's refurbished. Frankly I would get a MacBook 11 or 12 or make your own gamif laptop.

New macbook comes out tonight/tomorrow so if you end up getting one, wait a bit.

Thought so

Do you have access to an OS? If so, would you be willing to jump through some "hoops" to get it working...?

Looked around on newegg for a bit, this doesn't look too bad.

Well, If you wanted a laptop more geared for normal usage I would recommend something like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834127979
OR if youre willing to do a bit of splurging after taxes I would take a look into something like this
http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Xplorer_X6-9350_Gaming_Notebook/

quickly? They take 20 days to make from the time you order it.

I have a hp Pavilion g6 which has a separate card for graphics other than using memory off of the main hardware. It has very good price to IF you buy at the right time and place. My laptop without anything only costs 440$ but, with additional software and antivirus/ geek squad support (best buy) I think I got a really good deal. But, remember, that if you are also going to be using it for school, get Microsoft word. It costs 80$ if you get one download/ one pc.

This guy Is great, He shows how to build your own and what parts to get, but most are Desktop. https://www.youtube.com/user/duncan33303/videos

Whichever brand you decide to settle on, i would recommend purchasing it from a local source in your town/city if possible. Laptops do tend to suffer from more issues then PC's and when they need to be fixed/replaced it is much quicker(and cheaper) when it doesn't have to be posted around the country. Good choice in avoiding alienware, it's overpriced junk.

righto ... a few labtops i had that i bought from online- i barely knew anything about the actual parts in them - so when i wanted to upgrade it's sdd or get replacement batteries - i had no idea what the model or anything was - so it took me forever to find out... Where as some places like best buy, geek squad, radio-shack etc.- if you walk in their store, i'm pretty certain one of their employees will tell you about their specs and what each has to offer and where you can get accessories or parts for them.

Get an MSi CR720 with 17.3 inch screen,
https://www.imgur.com/Sih1zUf.jpeg for some specs, also has a mic and webcam.
EDIT: Oops forgot the good thing, only 400 euros

Might want to look here.
http://www.xoticpc.com/index.html
http://www.resellerratings.com/store/Xotic_PC
They seem to be decent. Plus with some of their laptops, you can choose to have no OS put on it. Then, if you can get your hands on someones copy of W7, you could use a "trial extender"........

I would decide against Alienware because it's Dell, and Dell rushes their computers and they don't run very efficiently, as eklektoi said. My friend owns one and becomes extremely frustrated with it, especially when they are in a mood and seem to only work when placed in a certain position. Also, sometimes the charger slots/ports aren't placed properly and can break the charger.
Plus, the name. People usually just want the name.

Personally, I like Razer. They're manufactured better and run alot better than Alienware.

Although, I was in a similar situation to you a few months ago

Back in 2009, I got my first laptop. It was a Samsung R510, pre-installed with Windows Vista. I kind of messed around with something and had to reset it a few weeks after I got it. Then, about 6 months later I had to factory reset it all the time. In 2010, the hard disk broke and my W,A,S,D and enter keys fell off. I took it in for repairs, and they said that the hard disk was a bit broken, but it would last for three more years before completely failing and I would still have to factory reset it every week.
In 2011, I got Windows 7. The Factory Resets lowered down to every 4 months, and the speed of the laptop started to improve.
Then, start of 2012:
The hinges on the screen were becoming looser, until the screen came off. I had to take it in for repairs again. The keys also occasionally fell off, but it wasn't a problem.
End of 2012:
The laptop started to become slower and slower at the start of September. In October, it turned off one of my USB ports and uninstalled my mouse software itself and wouldn't re-install it. Then, my touchpad started to fail me. By the end of November, the Hard Disk exploded in the middle of the night ._.

I ended going with a HP Pavilion g6. Despite coming pre-installed with Windows 8 (which is good, but the graphics and UI put me off -.-), it's really good for gaming and is larger but portable.

So, there's a little bit of a problem with the amount of money you want to spend, for a
desktop that would be okay, but your buying a laptop so all of the parts will be a substantial amount more.
Your gonna need a disk reader (for installing windows) unless unless you plan on using Ubuntu.
Now for the ram, it depends, there are 3 types of laptop ram DDR2, DDR3 and DDR4 ram, DDR3 will be cheaper but function a little slower than DDR4 and DDR2 is useless, but there is not much difference in performance unless your editing and rendering.8 gigs ofDDR3 ram will put you down about 80 euros/dollars depending on what site you get it from. As for a processor your gonna want i5 or a very high end i3.