Alienware Mx18 help

Hi new to this group so, Hi .Have few question that i hope you all can help me with
Have been looking at the Alien ware for a while now Want to be using this to play fist person shooter and some photo video editing, work away most of the year so need a laptop. i can play most games on the high levels but dont play on line .
I see they keep coming out with the latest Processor 2760m,2860m and 2960 and a fair price hike with each one,are the price hikes worth it and at what point will i realy see the difference on what i am doing
also with the Graphics cards see most of the treads i have read here are saying the 6990 is realy a 6870 underclocked , HAve a little idea what over clocking is but what is underclocking , little lost here as i think it means the 6870 is a better card than the 6990. The only options with the Mx18 is the 6990 or the 580m sli and dual or single From what i have read so far most think the 6990m is bettter than the 58mSli is that corre t, i have read there can be issues in a laptop with dual cards any inof or links to a thread i can look at ??? think i need a lot of help so i dont waste money just for the sake of getting the latest spec if it not realy worth the cost
Did follow on of the treads on a Sagar and that ended up over $4700
With the RAM would i be better gettingteh min amount now and adding to it in 6 months when the price has dropped to a reansonable price
Any and all help would be great or links to other gaming laptops
Thanks

thanks for the info getting to grips with the terminology , going to look at it again , Did look at the Sagar machine but the prices rocket also and as I live in the U.K would have to get it shipped then import taxes do you know or would you recommend any other U.K Laptop manufactures
You Say there is little point in increasing past the 2760QM why is that , will I not relay see much difference with game play?
Would I be able to over clock this CPU or would I be running into heat issues ?
With the RAM looking at the 1600Mhz DDR3 Dual Channel with dual 6990 cards as there is very limited choice when going to two cards at what point is it not cost effective should I look at lower speed RAM and add more when the price comes down
Then final thing for now is the Hard Drive and SATA or to go for a solid state, Keep most of my stuff on external 1TB drives anyway so don’t need or think I don’t need much past the 256GB SSD drive
Thanks in advance know I am just asking lots of question to help me chose the spec of a top notch gaming laptop

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As for the GPUs, the 580M SLI solution is faster than the 6990M CrossfireX solution. If you're foreign to overclocking, then I wouldn't buy the M18x, but go for the M17x instead. I've seen that machine rock games equally hard. As you Say new to this level of spec of a machine and want to do some research before i spend some cash , am looking at a lot of the threads on here and about over clocking , but any info would be great. Can i over clock both machine ? is it an easy process or could i mess up my computer easily ?
Steve

while looking at threads and review see the 6990 is an eyefinity , would i be able to link the Mx18 to more than one monitor is that only for the desktop version of the card?

Hi thank for the info, look at the web site again.
this is the spec Mx18
External Chassis Connections
(1x) Power/DC-in Jack
(1x) RJ-45 Gigabit Ethernet IPv6
(2x) SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Ports
(2x) Hi-Speed USB 2.0 Port
(1x) eSATA 3Gb/s + USB 2.0 Combo port (with PowerShare Technology)
(1x) Mini-Display Port
(1x) HDMI 1.4 Audio and Video Output
(1x) HDMI 1.3 Audio and Video Input
(1x) VGA Port
(1x) 9-in-1 Media Card Reader
(2x) Audio Out 1/8" Ports
(1x) Combo S/PDIF Optical output / Analog Headphone Line Out (7.1 digital audio output via S/PDIF)
(1x) Line In Microphone 1/8" Port (retaskable for 5.1 analog audio output)
(1x) Security Lock port


Going back to your earlier reply you say the 2760Qm is good for most people, if I was looking at linking it in an eyefinity set up would this still work as well?
Reading a few posts on it also say says more RAM on the video card and more power needed?
Going to be travelling around and would like to play games on it and when was thinking of also up grading the Home theatre set up which work well playing games onto a 60" Pioneer HDTV, but I can set this machine up with an Eyefinity set up and would happily drive 3 monitors then I can set up in the spare room as a dedicated gamer room.
What do you think, looking at the specs of the cards available and the price jump can see I am paying for their latest development and the speed don’t justify the cost increase but where do I stop and where can I start, of should I get a good laptop and build a dedicated eyefinity gaming machine, with bells and whistles and water cooling?
Cheers
Edited by Rockyon1 - 12/31/11 at 11:16am