Catatonick

Watch him from a distance and stalk him. From that point I can determine if he is worth wasting rounds on or not.

I don't think of this as a game. It is more a stressful, rewarding, zombie filled, survival simulator.

I wouldn't tell him to get an SSD if he is trying to get his parents to get it for him. SSDs don't impact gaming performance enough to justify them over a 7200rpm drive if price is a concern. I would look for a 560 Ti and a decent i5 cpu with 8GB of RAM. Find a good price for that.

You do know you can get wireless cards for a desktop right? Alienware is NOT Alienware anymore it is basically just Dell with a flashy case. You are getting ripped off if you buy one of them because there are much better, faster, and cheaper laptops out there. If you can avoid it at all just don't buy a laptop for gaming. There may be some made "for" gaming but that doesn't really mean a lot. Battery life is terrible so you still end up with a "desktop" that has to be plugged into a wall nearly all the time but it is just easier to move because you can fold it up and relocate. If you aren't moving around a lot then it is pointless. Laptops have slower processors, slower graphics cards, and more issues with heat than any gaming desktop you would build ever will and they become outdated much faster because you are very limited as to what you can upgrade. If you must have a laptop make sure it has good ventilation. This means bulk. Do NOT get a slim profile laptop. If you want to play games with it you have to give up a lot of portability or performance... there isn't much else you can do. It must have a discrete card. That means it needs a Radeon or an Nvidia card with its own RAM. Faster HDDs are good. You want to avoid a 5400rpm drive if you intend to game with it. You will probably want to get a 7200rpm hdd or a big ssd. I personally prefer a big hard drive for gaming to avoid issues with the SSD and price is ridiculous for them still but it is going down. You can upgrade 2 things without voiding warranty... RAM and Hard Drive. That is it. They are easy to access and hard to mess up so do NOT pay a fortune to get them when you buy the laptop. It isn't worth it. Most manuals even show you how to do it. Make sure you always research the CPU and the graphics card extensively, use youtube to find performance videos, find benchmarks... research research research. Do NOT fall for marketing. If you spend your money wisely the laptop will last longer. Don't buy a computer because it looks "pretty" or "cool" ever... you usually pay a premium for a flashy case. It also makes the laptop less of a target. A plain laptop lid makes it look like a cheaper/business computer while an Apple logo or Alienware logo reveals that the laptop is worth a lot of money. If you want to build a desktop shoot me a PM with your budget and I will help you find parts that fit it for the most bang for your buck.