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Originally Posted by MooseMan3000
Unless you're doing really complex, in depth modelling, AutoCAD uses virtually no resources. When I was learning it at school, we had 1.5 or so GHz machines, and while it wasn't as fast as I would have liked, I never had any major problems with it. Unless you're doing it professionally, 8-10 hours a day, what you have would be more than enough for your uses.
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I can't quote actual figures, but I've recently used various autodesk apps, autocad the most, on several systems. From a P3-900 with 384 MB of RAM and an old Radeon 7000, to my newer amd 3500+ with 2 gigs and a 6600GT, to a big fat xeon based 4 gig of ram workstation.
I think all autodesk apps are bloated resource hogs. The time saved when you re-render, or just when you open the program, will be worth any reasonable upgrade, in my opinion.
When I bought my new system in the fall, I went ahead and bought an Antec Sonota II case. It is a bit larger, but it is designed to be quiet (and it is), and it comes with a 500W antec power supply, which came with a 5 year warranty and should be able to hangle any demands you'll throw at it.
I have a couple Electrical Eng student friends who just had to complete a research project in december. They compared performance vs ratings on six or seven PSUs. They found that some name brands are underrated; they ran a 500w thermaltake, pulling 600+ watts (variously with higher amperage pulls or higher voltage drops) for the duration of the research over 60 days with no problems. They also found that a 'no-name' brand, I think it was "aries", rated at 400W, burnt out after one day at 350W. In the interest of science (and full disclosure), the loads weren't from a computer system, but from some sort of rigged up multimeter-osciliscope that they could control.