The computer you built is leaps and bounds better than that dell. with good quality parts. I built a comp on newegg with likely the same shit parts(still name brand) with the same exact specs of his dell(500gb hd and cheaper case/pwr super/mobo all had good ratings) for $900 without looking for any combo deals. if you subtract windows 7 you can get one for 800 bucks.
the dell is only 3.0gb/s on the hard drive and 1/4 the cache not sure how much of a performance difference he would see since its not solid state though. dell is charging $140 i repeat 140 dollars to upgrade from 8gb to 12 gb. 16gb straight up is $42 on newegg.
If you got a cheaper case in there( i got a cheap one for $30 that gets the job done.) and switched to 4x4gb you could easily beat the price and beat it in quality and performance for over 100 bucks cheaper than his price…
HOLY CRAP HD PRICES WENT UP THOUGH. Glad i got my 1tb in october for $60.