a friend is buying some second hand computers. since he does not know much about computers, he wants me to look at the machines and do the purchasing for him the guy who is selling them does not need them anymore, as he has some newer machines, and is prepared to give them off at a low price the machines will be used for general office work + autocad. i need some advice / links to helpful websites. thanx in advance my signature does not look like this

This is probably one of the most helpful websites there is. What are the specs of the machines? Keep Smiling It makes them think you're up to something...

For general office work most any machine will do. Autocad is a different animal. If you need to perform 3D rendering, you need a fairly powerful computer with a upper end add-in graphics card. Many office computers have only onboard graphics. It doubt they will suffice. I suggest you check at the Autodesk website for minimum hardware specs for the version of Autocad you will be running. Also keep in mind that Autocad requires licensing for each workstation it is installed on.