Alienware is, of late, from what I've heard from friends, not a reliable company. Their stuff seems to fail a lot.
Dell is, well, not bad of late for laptops. A number of my friends seem to have been pleased with their dells that they bought a year or so ago.
Apple is a different story.
Their hardware is usually of very high quality, and they're also expensive. I have had people tell me that their macbook Pro out-does any windows machine they ever owned. I've also had people tell me that the macbook Pro was a piece of crap.
Macs run a UNIX-based OS, and it differs vastly from windows. The switchover, assuming you're what one would call a 'power user' of sorts with windows, would be very painful and annoying.
Overall, if you're used to Windows, and don't want to learn another OS, I'd suggest going with Dell. Get one of their high end models. It'll cost you, just like the MacBook Pro will, but from what I've heard from people about Dell lately, you'll get what you paid for.
(I also urge you to check into other brands, not just Dell.)
Oh... (Don't remember if we're allowed to discuss this stuff... but...) cr4cking of the software... there are cr4cks for Mac stuff... just harder to find than windows ones cause Mac is used by fewer people on average.