Why such a long bootup?

When I boot my new computer, a Dell Inspiron 660s, it starts with the "Dell" screen and it sits there for about 1 minute, then goes on to the "Starting Windows" screen and continnues to boot up. My question is, what is the computer doing that takes so long before it actually starts Windows? Is there any way to speed it up?

As a reference, my previous computer, a 3 year old Dell Inspiron, also with Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit, would boot up from start to desktop in less time than this new one stays on the "Dell" screen.

I suppose it could be the start up programs (some call it Bloatware) that came with the computer. You can see what starts up and stop many of them and see if that improves your time.

I've already uninstalled a number of programs that came on the computer and stopped a few others using msconfig. It hasn't made any difference whatsoever. But I would also ask what programs, whether bloatware or otherwise would run before Windows starts?

I've also doubled the RAM from 4GB to 8GB. No difference.

Return it.

Take a look through here and see if any of the suggestion is to your liking.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/11728-optimize-windows-7-a.html