Laptops for Creative Cloud Apps

Question

Before I get into trouble for high jacking threads again, has anyone recently bought a new laptop for Photoshop and other Adobe apps, or is up to date with the current state of play?  My 19 inch Dell must be six or seven years old now.  I has its maximum 4Gb RAM, a new HDD, and Windows 7, and has been stripped to bare bones, but it’s time to accept it has given its all, and time to replace it.  The problem is, I am more or less clueless about what to replace it with.
Cost is not a huge issue, but I like to keep bang-for-buck in mind.  I’ve wandered through several possibilities, and am currently thinking in terms of an MSI gaming system with this sort of spec:
17 inch full 1080 non reflective display.
I7-3630QM at 2.4Ghz (3.4Ghz turbo mode)
16Gb RAM (I can up this to 32)
GTX680 with 4Gb DDR5
Two 128Gb SSD in raid0
One 750Gb HDD (unknown spec)
3 off USB3
2 off USB2
1 off eSATA
HDMI
D-Sub
(it will drive three external monitors)
AFAIK I can only get it with Windows 8 — I would prefer Windows 7
Some of these gaming rigs have SLI’d graphics, which I obviously don’t want, so I’d like to make sure this one doesn’t?
This would cost me NZ$3000  (US$2335)  I can get next generation CPU and graphics for another NZ$1000, but some of those options come with Quadro mobile graphics, which I believe are not ideal for Photoshop, Prem Pro, After Effects etc.
I would very much welcome feedback and advice before pressing the button on this.
TIA

Answer 1

Hi Robert
I had found your earlier blog post while doing my research, but it was useful to read the second post, and I had a look at the Adrian Kingsley-Hughes Ultimate Photoshop PC post.  (Is he serious going online with a name like that?!)
So it looks like I am going to fine with a quad core i7 at 2.4Hhz or faster, 16Gb RAM and decent nVidia graphics? 
One thing you don't mention in your articles is raid0.  I know from experience with my desktop NLE system, that it wouldn't run nicely until I added at least one raid0 as a project drive.  I had originally used a single 2nd gen 10k rpm v'raptor to feed the video, and I was unable to scrub the timeline without stutter.  Pairing a second identical drive in raid0 sorted that out nicely, and gave me lots of space to use it for current Photoshop projects as well.
So a lot of my thoughts have gone into how a laptop can best manage the multiple drive requirement, and I am leaning towards two SSD in a raid0, plus a larger HDD for data and non speed critical storage.  I am up to five USB3 WD MyBook externals on my desktop, and they are surprisingly fast, so I can borrow one of these when travelling with the laptop.
Incidentally, I also have a 500Gb USB3 pocket drive that is powered via its single USB3 cable, and this falls well short of the WD MyBooks performance wise.
All in all, looking at the sort of laptops that come with coloured lights, brightly coloured cases with dragon emblems, and similar, I'd say we have a lot to thank gamers for.  I am still unsure about Windows 8 though.  It is starting to look like Windows 8 is OK if you stick with nVidia graphics, so my reluctance is just down to learning a new OS.  But I see good old Stardock (I love Fences) has produced a Windows 7 like UI for Windows 8.
Thanks all.