Extended boot up time

Try these steps to start:

Boot Windows in safe mode. Is there a difference in startup time? If so, these MS Knowledgebase articles provide a starting point for troubleshooting

Resources for troubleshooting startup problems in Windows XP -
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308041/

How to perform a clean boot in Windows XP - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310353/

Computer built by a maker like HP, DELL or others they load tons of stuff that you have to need and use. I would go to add\remove programs and remove any thing that I dont want. Then right click on the start button and explore, go to start up and remove things you do not want to load at start up.
Look at the event viewer to see if there are any messages there about errors.
Even though it is a new computer I would run system cleanup and run defrag, there could be allot of install files and other stuff to remove.
Look on this site for what to do with a new computer and what you need to do before connecting to the internet.
Down load power toys for XP from Ms this will let you tweak allot of settings and how it loads.
As always update patch and have an antivirus and malware programs loaded and updated.

Are what are the specs of the machine. Slow Processors and small amounts of RAM will contribute to longer booting times that what should be required but to add faster CPU's or more RAM would increase the cost of the base computer to an unacceptable level so these places go with the minimum that will work.

However having said that you can improve the boot up times by following the above advice. It's just if you have a slow CPU and a small amount of RAM there is only so much that you can achieve.

As an example my NB that was built to suit my needs rather than some off the shelf unit has a 3.6 GIG CPU 1 GIG of RAM a 120 GIG HDD and running XP Pro takes about 3.5 to 4 minutes to have windows open. The time depends if my finger print is recognized immediately or I have to have a couple of attempts at it.

The down side is that Battery life is very limited but as it was built for bulk Number Crunching that was never an issue.

Col