Acer here in australia has the same kinda deal through some retailers, same specs for computer just cost you AU$260 for upgrade to dvd burner; but u can get it even cheeper if you work at a school; which is good for me. ONe price i saw was AU$999 for:
Celeron 2.4ghz
256mb ddr
40gb hDD
48Xburner or upgrade for AU$260 to dvd burner
onboard graphics, lan sound and all that
modem
MM keyboard
optical mouse
XP home
17"crt monitor
1 year onsite warranty

thats througha company called learning with technologies
http://www.lwt.com.au/stafforder.pdf

i have seen some around the same price elsewhere that arent just for staff members at schools. SO it isnt just Dell doing their deals