I'm very suprised that your Dell rep didn't discuss imaging services with you. I know, a day late and a dollar short on that one...

I understand your pain, I really do. I had a similar issue with 15 or so machines a few months back (all identical Optiplex). I attempted the M$-only route using Sysprep and PXE booting and serving the images off a W2k3 server, but it was nothing but pain. In the end I set up the first machine, used a properly licensed seat of Ghost Server to clone my image to all the others and then didn't worry about it. All the machines work fine. I use WSUS (Windows Server Update Services) to handle patches & service packs internally (all machines look to a local master server - limits bandwidth needed).

The way I figure, if I bought a license (there's stickers on the outside of the case), then I'm clear. So far everything has Just Worked.

-Zeke