I got $3000 and I need a gaming laptop.

I need a gaming laptop for school and I got $3000 dollars to spend. I have a list of prioties that I need for this computer. 1 is most important and after that they all go down.

1. Gaming and graphical horsepower.

2. Longevity or the ability to upgrade it and replace the video card.  A non-intagrated card would be great.

3. USB ports I need lots of them

4. Memory. The school requires a ton of junk on my computer and I put alot on their two.

5. Warantty.  I'm probably going to download some crap that will ruin my computer and I need a good warranty to back it up.

6. Battery.  Hopefully I can get a larger battery pack becuase by brother will be using it in the car.

My brother will be using this laptop for school and we will both game on it.  It needs to be a laptop, and as much as I want one, there is no chance of a desktop.

Also, I should get Vista, or maybe get XP.  I heard Vista kinda sucks but I don't use computer's more deeper functions so maybe get it.  What I asking is should I get Vista, or should I get XP considering I can find it for $70.

http://www.alienware.com/product_detail_pages/area-51_m9750/area-51m_overview.aspx?SysCode=PC-LT-AREA51M9750-GC&SubCode=SKU-DEFAULT

...or anything else alienware=D

3. Don't sweat the USB ports too much. You'll get at best 2-3 on most laptops. If you need more, you can get a hub

4. Go for a laptop with at least 2GB of RAM (though 4GB would be nicer). Hard drive space - shoot for at least 320 GB (though, again, you can get an external drive for your massive video and music library).

6. If you want a gaming laptop, you're always going to get sketchy battery performance

Go with XP if you can. It's a much better OS.

I heard Alinware is kinda overpriced for what they are giving you.  Their price to value ratio isn't the best.

Ok, going to get a hub.  I just need about 1:30 of battery but not for playing a game.  If I needed to finish a homework assingment on word in the car I need more than 30 min. to finish it.  I wouldn't game without being plugged in.  And in terms of memory I was thinking of 150 to 200 gb.

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A couple months ago I would have totally agreed with you.. but I gave Vista a try and it's not that bad... actually has some advantages over XP.. but I have 3 desktops at home and 4 laptops so it's not like XP or Vista is all I run

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Same here.  Recently reformatted and decided to give Vista a 2nd try (since the last time the OS was only a few months old).  Both are great systems, though.  So which ever you get should be just fine.

I am looking at Dell and Visio because those are the easiest to configure to my schools network.  Any good laptops from Dell or Visio?

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The funny thing is that if you look up gaming laptops on dell's website they will try to sell you alienware laptops.

So all dell Laptops are Alien Ware?

Gaming laptop?  Why not get a gaming PC and a laptop and save some money.