So was thinking of buying the missus an Alienware gaming laptop to play The Sims 3 etc on so I checked out the site and big difference in price from the US and AUS

Wondering if there would be any major problems to worry about apart from the power issues, could you order one cheaper from the US and just replace the power cord or worst case the battery?

Alienware laptops always seem to cost about 20% more than they should in my opinion
you can get an asus i7/8gb with a geforce gt650m for $1339, $160 cheaper than the i5/6gb alienware

Do you really need that much grunt just to play the Sims?

Sounds sus to me. I bet it's the old let me buy you this, oh what it works for my games to. How cool!

Nice work if you can swing it.

I wouldn't spend my money on a alienware despite the good looks and the performance that they guarantee, like hardware said i prefer a normal hp i7 then a i5 alienware

I have had my MX15 for over two years which bought while i was in the US. Brought it back to australia and just used my old laptops lead and it works fine. It hasnt given me any trouble at all and i have a normal 23 inch monitor plugged into it.

The only draw back i can think of is if it had a big enough fault that i had to send ot back. I wouldnt look forward to that even if i was in the US. I am heading back to the US in less than a month and while i have considered upgrading i probably wont.

that's not as bad as they once were.

Uh, i think that's because people like asus have crept up in price as they have prestige.

MSI have produced high end gaming laptops for around 1300.
http://affordablelaptops.com.au/contents/en-us/d71_msi-gx60-laptop-notebook.html
This videocard produces around about 4% less fps than a gtx 580.

What was the budget again?

I would suggest picking up a non-alienware laptop. There are plenty out there with 8gb of RAM, i5 processor and a 6xx graphics card. They should do fine for sims 3 and you can pick them up starting at like $800.

And viper, build one yourself. The cases are cheap and you can fit similar components for 2/3rds of the cost, maybe less.

If you're stuck on how to build a PC, FrankieonPCin1080p recently did a video showing a 300 pound micro gaming PC similar to that, though lower spec (you could upgrade if needed). I would link it, but it seems to have been taken down, not sure why.

But regardless, you can easily build something almost / just as good as that alienware desktop for probs $600.

You're probably right, check this out:

Case: COOLERMASTER SILENCIO 550 QUIET MID TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU): Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-3570K (3.4GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard: ASUS® SABERTOOTH Z77: USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, THERMAL ARMOR
Memory (RAM): 8GB KINGSTON HYPERX BEAST DUAL-DDR3 2400MHz X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card: 2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 660 Ti - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
1st Hard Disk: 1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive: 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply: CORSAIR 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX650 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£69)
Processor Cooling: Super Quiet 22dBA Triple Copper Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler (£19)
Sound Card: ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities: 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options: 6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System: Genuine Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence (£139)
Warranty: 3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery: STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time: Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days

Price (excluding VAT): £866.67
Price: £1,040.00

Looks like Valve might blow everyone out of the water, just released their console hardware!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20949071

So was thinking of buying the missus an Alienware gaming laptop to play The Sims 3 etc on so I checked out the site and big difference in price from the US and AUS

Wondering if there would be any major problems to worry about apart from the power issues, could you order one cheaper from the US and just replace the power cord or worst case the battery?

- just order the Aus power pack or buy a cheapie power socket converter such as you would from the airport if you were traveling abroad.

- if you buy an overseas model, Dell won't offer onsite support for any unit here in Aus unless you've purchased an extended international warranty. This kinda crept up on me - I really don't know how long that's been in effect. The website doesn't make this obvious when you're buying the unit.

- get the full 3yr warranty. Dells typically don't have issues until they're at least 18 months old.

- remember that just about any gaming laptop is going to have a shorter lifespan in the Queensland heat than it would in cooler climates. A lot of peeps use their computers in environments that aren't air conditioned over the warmer months of the year. There's a little slip of paper that comes in the box with any laptop instructing the user to keep the unit out of direct sunlight, under ~40 degrees, don't get it wet, etc. Most people blow their warranty on the first hot Summer day and conveniently forget this... then later wonder why their laptop has issues later on. Any Dell support techy will be quick to point this out to you when/if they come to your home/office. I must have said that 20 times in the last 7 days.. people still try and work around it though :/

- Dell have tech support that comes to you door at a time that suits you.. damn I love that.

- still not a huge fan of their call center however.

Looks like Valve might blow everyone out of the water, just released their console hardware!http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20949071

Did a bit of digging on this one Xim3 Corporation was funded by Valve to create it. So its not indirectly a 'Steam Box' but its close enough.

More recently ibuypower.com released a lounge room "PC"
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6608/ibuypower-releases-the-revolt-fully-custom-compact-gaming-pc

Not sure if you could get this in Australia. Wish more US companies like this would come to Australia/ship internationally.

I'd lean towards a clevo myself (labelled Horize here)

http://www.logicalblueone.com.au

I picked mine up in Germany last year... Doesn't have all the crappy lights and stuff on it and has better hardware for a lower price tag.

A 15inch is probably enough, having an sli isn't really worth it.

My P150 with a GTX 580M seems to run everything fine in HD and you can pick a similar system up under 2k.