In the famous words of Lord Kitchener, your country needs you! Well, PC Pro. As of today, five of our writers are beginning their quest to create, buy and barter their way to the best possible £250 PC or laptop.

We’ve charged Darien Graham-Smith with spending £250 on a second-hand machine, we’ll be sending David Fearon to the high street to find his perfect PC (or laptop), while David Bayon will be doing the same but online.

Meanwhile Mike Jennings will be speccing up his own machine – hopefully with your help – and Stuart Turton has the ultimate challenge: to build a PC for precisely nothing.

The rules are simple. I’ll give all of them (apart from Stu) £250 and they have to obtain or build the best machine they can. If they choose a PC, it doesn’t need a monitor but will need a keyboard and mouse. They have to pose as normal customers and they can’t spend a penny more than the £250 (which includes VAT and delivery).

So, over the next two weeks we’ll be uploading blogs, photos and videos to mark everyone’s progress. Click on the brand-new blog category called The £250 Challenge to see what they’re all up to.

Once all the PCs and laptops are in, I’ll be passing final judgement to decide the winner – and that winner (and the whole feature) will be announced in issue 175 of PC Pro, which hits the newsstand on the 12th of March.

And that’s when we’ll also be giving all PC Pro readers a chance to win the machines we’ve bought and built (though we may spare you from Stuart’s offering).

Good luck to all the contestants, and thanks in advance to everyone who helps them – the very best piece of advice will earn its giver a very special prize…