Dell vs others?

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Hey all,

First off I'm not very technology minded so be gentle :P.I'm on the lookout for a new pc/laptop recently as my 512mb ram pc just doesn't cut it anymore .I've started college and a lot of it involves using Autocad 2012 so was planning on using the student version,the thing is it's a very powerful piece of software which is going to require me buying a new pc,from the autocad website the system requirements are:

Intel® Pentium® 4 processor, 3 GHz or higher with SSE2 technology, or AMD
Athlon™ dual-core processor, 3 GHz or higher with SSE2 technology
2 GB RAM (3 GB RAM recommended)
2.5 GB free disk space for default installation, or 3 GB for full installation
1,024 x 768 display with true color (1,280 x 1,024 true color recommended)
128 MB graphics card (256 MB or greater recommended)
Pixel Shader 3.0 or greater, Microsoft® Direct3D®-capable-workstation-class 3D graphics card (currently supported graphics hardware)
Microsoft® Internet Explorer® 7.0 or later
DVD drive (for installation only)

Was checking online for a suitable pc on the dell website there's the XPS 3000
from the dell website includes:
Included in your system:
English Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium (64 BIT)
Intel® Core™ i7-2600 Processor (3.40GHz, 8MB)
OS Windows® Recovery Media Not included
Blu-Ray ROM combo (Blu-ray read only, DVD, CD read & write)
8192MB Dual Channel DDR3 1333MHz [4x2048] Memory
2TB Dual Hard Drive RAID 0 "Stripe" (2x1TB - 7,200 rpm)
NVIDIA® GeForce GT 545 1GB DDR5 Graphics Card
Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio PCIe Card

So in my opinion *I think* it's a powerful pc including monitor,mouse and keyboard and it's all for €1,000 after being reduced from €1600.

I was trying to check other sites out currys,pixmania etc etc for an similiar spec pc but while they might have the same sized hardrives and ram.The processor power is a lot lower 2.4 or 2.6 Ghz for the same price and there is pcs with half the ram and hardrive space for €1,300.My question is I know currys is an brick and mortar store so they'd be more expensive but are you paying for the brand name HP for example specs aside would they be an better build pc compared to dell ones and therefore be more reliable or is it simply the fact the pc above is a bargain at that price and dell are just clearing excess stock before xmas?

Thanks in advance.

Leckywest

Honestly, computing is moving more and more to the cloud (access the applications through the Web Browser) so the processing power will be in the cloud - not on the PC you use. You may well find yourself using AutoCad as a web-based service soon like gmail and office365 etc... plus saving all your documents in the safer managed cloud (albeit potentially less secure).
Run with the specifications suggested and treat yourself over the Christmas instead with what you save. Dell and the other companies will soon be struggling to move PC's as we just don't need that much processing power on the client anymore.

asif2011

Yeah it's a good PC, it has loads of RAM and good 3D graphics card for AutoCAD and good processor for rendering your projects. AutoCAD is hefty piece of kit, you need a good PC. I think if you built the PC yourself you could probably save a bit, but seen as you are a begineer relatively speaking, having Dell on the other end of the phone might be preferable to saving a little bit when you would be more focused on learning AutoCAD. You'll probably get more support out of Dell than you would with Currys, Dixons, PC World.

Pred192

You could build your own pc for a cheaper price. If you think it is difficult trust me it is not. One of your friends should be able to do it if you can't but you should be able to. You can normally save quite a lot when building your own pc and it will always perform better.