Yeah, sorry, it's not really about help specifying a system. More about quality of suppliers versus overall cost. For clarity, though, I'm specifying a desktop substitute in laptop form and it needs to be able to carry off web and server app development, graphics and modelling work, and desktop gaming all in one.
I'm pretty unlikely to buy Apple as I've no use for Mac OS and while I know you can dual boot them and so on it seems kinda pointless when you never intend to use the other part of them.
I hadn't considered MSI, though my sense of their quality from recent net wanderings is that it may be lacking some...?
Dell will deliver, for sure, but their build flexibility isn't great and I feel like they add 10-20% to the price just for being Dell. If I'd no other options, though, I'd probably buy Dell.
Which is why I ended up at Scan 3XS, really. They felt like Dell but with greater build flexibility and more balanced prices. I'd say that they're currently front running for me.