I need lots of base units to replace ageing units at work. The need to have XP loaded as we don't want to go anywhere near Vista.

80+ Gb HD, 2 Gig ram, dual core. Used mainly for general MS Office applications. Any recommendations? I need them in the next two weeks.

Thanks.

If you can pay up front (i'll even come to your premesis and do it there if you have a room to spare for a few days) and order the components in (I can help oversee that if required) i'd be willing to do this

how many are we talking exactly? the most I have done is a 25 machine turn around in 5 days (from nothing to fully running)

You don't want to be messing around with custom built P.Cs, that great if you need top performance for gaming or similar but for basic business machines look at the big names Dell, Lenovo, HP, Fujitsu-Siemens etc. Speak to the big Suppliers Insight, Computacenter. They have the buying power to offer a much better price. Then compare after sales service and see who can offer the best deals on extended warranty and software etc. Shop around and don't be afraid to haggle.

Also have a look at VeryP.C a Sheffield company whose primary focus is on selling low power consumption computers, Pick one of the main stream P.Cs and get them to see if what they can offer you will save you money.

Also speak to the supplier about installing your own build onto the P.C You set one p.C up exactly how you want it then they duplicate that and install the image onto all the others. Compare the cost of that against you spending time setting all the p.cs up individually. Whether its cost effectiv will depend on how many P.Cs you need to set up.

Find out about having your old p.cs disposed of. Any sensitive data needs to be wiped off the hard drives and you may also have to pay for the removal and recyling of your old units so remember to budget for that as well.

We have technical support from a company called ESP. They are installing a new server soon and we want the new machines (approx 15) ready to swap at the same time. They can set up one machine then we can mirror the software on to the others or we get XP ready installed. We have enough licences for Office but need XP to come with the machines. I see that Dell are offering machines from £159. We are replacing Fujitsus and if there are local companies able to supply, even better.

go with dell, you wouldn't get a better price from a local company, to be honest.

The £159 becomes £300 with the XP downgrade and VAT added. There are more options available at this price. These people look to be worth considering - http://www.pcoption.co.uk/pcbaseunits/index31.htm

If you are a VAT registered company which most limited companies with a reasonable turnover are then you claim the VAT back.