My department doesn't have the budget to upgrade my ailing Dell D620 laptop. However, I do have the option to buy my own personal computer, then use my company-issued ISO image to run Windows XP as my guest os using virtualbox or vmware.

Therefore, last month, I bought an Acer AX3910-U3012 desktop that had Windows 7 as the host os (and 8G RAM). In short, I was disappointed with the performance while trying to run WinXP as the guest os. (It didn't perform much better than my laptop.)

Just wondering what the optimal host os would be for running Windows XP as the guest os? (No, I can't use my company-issued ISO image to build the os for my personal computer.)

FWIW, I'm willing to spend up to $2k if it's REALLY worth it, but would prefer to spend no more than $1k. Also, in an effort to cut costs, I'd prefer buy a desktop instead of a laptop.

Thanks for any/all feedback.