Confused On A Few Things

Well money is no problem, I will save for the best alienware has to offer. I have looked at other brands, but the systems just dont look as sleek and as well put together as alienware's do. And I have always wanted 1 since I saw them back in highschool in a gaming magazine. But A few things have me confused, because they dont really show ratings or explain why OR if the upgrade is better performance wise.

Alienware M17x
Intel® Core™ i7 920XM 2.0GHz (3.2GHz Turbo Mode, 8MB Cache)
Dual 1GB ATI Radeon™ Mobility HD 4870 in CrossfireX™
8GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz

OR

Alienware M17x
Intel® Core™2 Extreme Quad QX9300 2.53GHz (12MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
Dual NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 280M, 2GB – SLI® Enabled
8GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz

What I need to know is which would be the best setup, giving me amazing graphics at high FPS and multi-tasking? I always go by "you get what you pay for" and to customize with I7 cost alot more, but I want to be positive I am getting the best system to last me for serveral years to come. And according to what I read, the latest I7 is the best processor availble to the public so far. But im no geek, and choosing between 2 different types of processors and 2 different brands of GPUs has me all confused. I talked to the guys at work, and some favor Nvidia and some favor ATI. But according to dells test it says "up-to 145% increased graphics" with the duel ATI cards. I dunno what to do, like I said money doesnt matter to me, I allready got 1500 back from taxes and the rest could be gathered in a few months. I just need some help deciding between the 2 from professionals who know all this technical stuff.

Currentlly I play WoW alot, and in 10man raids I get 15fps and 25man raids 8fps which is so frustrating. But I want to play other games like COD4 and Mass Effect 2 and many other newer games, but my laptop atm is terrible at running games.

without a doubt go for the first one,it has faster CPU and faster VGAs

Those Alienware setups may be powerfull, they are also to expensive for what you get. My advice, if you don't feel like putting together your own pc, is choosing the parts and letting a computer store put them together for you...You would get much more bang for your buck.

ow, a laptop...never noticed that. That's a bit different ofcourse...It's not so easy to pick your own parts then. Whenever I am looking for a laptop I always look at Asus first, but I must admit...when looking for exceptional gaming performance in a laptop your choices are rather limited and expensive.