Shopping around for a new gaming laptop

After four years of owning a Digital Storm desktop, I'm looking to replace it with a new gaming laptop. Right now I'm jumping back and forth between Digital Storm's x17 level 4 with some added on additions and the Alienware M17x.

1. Budget: $3000
2. Expectation: An extremely powerful laptop that can handle anything I throw at it. At the same time remaining somewhat portable with a reasonable battery life.
3. Usage: Gaming, school work, video editing, multimedia
4. Special Needs: Able to handle a duel monitor docking setup, have as much cutting edge tech for the price, be useful in a college environment
   

I'm tempted by the M17x's 3D screen, wireless video streaming technology, and HDMI input capabilities. I've owned two dell laptops in the past and my experience has been mixed. Even now I'm annoyed by the fact that I have to use a 460M graphics card for 3D instead of the Nvidia 485m.

On the other hand, Digital Storm's x17 series is backed by customer service that I know will beat Dell any day. Plus, my 4 year old desktop still works flawlessly! I'm assuming it's possible to configure the x17 to include blu-ray and more RAM (perhaps over the phone for a quote? or is this possible?) In addition, the x17 will have the 485M which (I think) is 20% more powerful than the 460M. I'm assuming this will really effect how high I can crank the settings on Crysis 2.

Is it a good trade off? Reliability vs. cutting edge tech, more conventional GPU power vs. 3D, etc. In essence, why do you think I should choose the x17 over the M17x?