Best Possible Laptop - Price is NOT An Issue!

Hey guys, I've read around but can't find exactly what I'm looking for, so I hope you'd help me decide!

I'm shopping for a new laptop as a graduation gift for my husband who just completed his computer science degree and is starting an amazing job.

NO price limit. (To be clear, I wouldn't flinch at spending 5-10k if it's an awesome machine.)

This will be his only computer, so we want the best we can get. He usually uses it at home in dual monitor setup (see below for monitor specs) but he also has to move around and take it with him, so he doesn't use a desktop anymore.

We're very interested in the top end 18" Alienware laptop. But I have some questions about the options, and was hoping you guys could help us decide.

Use: He designs and programs a variety of software, from apps and games to database management. He runs multiple coding and graphics programs at once, which really pushes the limits of the processor and RAM on his current laptop. We want it to run like a fine tuned Porsche no matter what he's running.

Note: He's 100% a software guy, and I'm in med school. We don’t want to deal with hardware issues like malfunctions, or do any adjustments or tweaking ourselves.
(Along those lines, we will be getting an extended warranty/accident plan for peace of mind.)


HDD - deciding this is my primary dilemma. Even after reading through threads on RAID and SSDs, I'm still uncertain what the best option for him is.
Options:

• 1TB SSD Quad Play RAID 0 (4x256GB SSD SATA 6Gb/s) …... I drooled when I saw this.
• 512GB mSATA SSD Boot + 1TB 5400 rpm --- but is this more reliable than those 4 SSD in Raid 0?

Other options I should consider?

• 1TB/5400 RPM + 80G caching mSATA? Looks like a lesser version of the 512SSD/1TB5400.

The key factor is reliability: Safety > Speed of access.
He backs up to a top notch external HDD, but only a couple times per week (yeah he should daily but realistically doesn't), so minimizing error rate is good.


Graphics card: His monitor is a 27" ASUS PB278Q (2560 x 1440 WQHD resolution, 5ms response, with HDMI 1.4) - we want a graphics card(s) that takes full advantage of it.
Options:

• Dual NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 880M graphics with 16GB total (2x 8GB) GDDR5 - NVIDIA SLI® Enabled
• Dual AMD Radeon™ R9 M290X graphics with 8GB total (2x 4GB) GDDR5 - AMD CrossFire™ Enabled
• Dual NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 780M with 4GB GDDR5 - NVIDIA SLI® Enabled

(Also if it matters to know this - whichever system we get, we'll choose the Windows 7 option. Not 8. Ever.)


Thanks for your help!!

Wish I had that kinda cash!

I know, right? It's exciting. We've been students for so long, and he's been making do with what we could afford. We've never bought anything that was top of the line before. So I want to do this for him!

RAID 0 has no redundancy whatsoever. So reliability is going to be about =.

Storage:
If you want to get space get a 1TB EVO SSD and a 1-2TB Mech HDD. Gives you speed and even more storage. Be killer for a laptop like that. If you start pushing the SSD speed to much in the laptop its going to totally saturate the bus. Even in laptops that I see currently only one typically is SATA3, and remaining connectors (including the mSATA) is SATA2. Raid in a laptop is more about getting more usable space in 1 spot vs speed. I use to run 2SSD's in Raid0 for many years, while it was quick I never really benefited from it. My new single SSD feels snappier than my raided ones and its almost 2x as slow on paper.

Graphics
If you want power, really no doubt the 2 cards will be the best. Will suck if you have to go on the road with it on no power but battery but still be the best. When looking at the cards for RAM totals, if a card has 4GB, it has 4GB to use across 2 cards. Do not get that confused.
Now with that being said, as for whats best? Even being an AMD guy on the GPU, the nVidia is probably the best bet. If he does any photo work, it could use the GPU better if not mistaken to help speed up that process.

And last of all, if you got a few bucks to spare I could use a really nice GPU for my PC

There was this "laptop" out there that was really a 6 core blade server (though with up to 2 GPUs) crammed into a laptop case. Have no idea how it would handle full load for an extended time...