The default position in most small businesses is to replace computers when they break or when they become so slow that staff complain. There's a better way to think about this.
The Real Cost of Old Hardware
A computer that takes four minutes to start up, five seconds to open a file, and occasionally freezes during video calls isn't just frustrating — it's costing money. If three staff members lose 20 minutes a day each to slow hardware, that's an hour of productive time per day. Over a working year, that's 230 hours — roughly £4,000-6,000 in staff time at typical salaries, for three people.
This calculation rarely appears on anyone's IT budget spreadsheet, but it's real. Slow hardware is a distributed, invisible cost that accumulates daily.
Beyond performance, old hardware creates security risk. Windows 10 reaches end of support in October 2025. Hardware that can't run Windows 11 will be running an unsupported operating system after that date — meaning no more security patches from Microsoft. Running unsupported software on business machines is a significant risk, and increasingly a compliance issue.
What a Sensible Refresh Cycle Looks Like
Four to five years is the industry-standard guidance for business desktop and laptop refresh cycles. At that age, most hardware is still functional but performance and support considerations start to mount.
A few factors adjust this:
Workload matters. A computer used primarily for email and browser-based applications will be adequate for longer than one running resource-intensive software like CAD, video editing or complex data analysis.
Reliability history matters. A machine that has had multiple hardware issues is worth replacing earlier. The cost of multiple repair callouts quickly exceeds the cost of a new device.
Role matters. A computer used by a senior person whose time is high-value, or someone in a customer-facing role where performance directly affects client experience, should be higher priority for refresh than a back-office machine with light use.
Planning a Rolling Refresh
The most cost-effective approach is a rolling replacement schedule rather than replacing everything at once. If you have 20 computers, replacing four or five per year at roughly £800-1,200 each means a predictable annual IT hardware budget of £4,000-6,000 rather than a £16,000-24,000 spike every four years.
This also means you're always running a mix of hardware ages, reducing the risk of an entire estate hitting end-of-life simultaneously.
Lease vs Buy
Leasing IT hardware has gained traction among SMEs because it converts a capital expenditure to a predictable operating expense, often includes support and refresh built in, and means you always have relatively current hardware. The per-month cost is higher than the equivalent purchase, but the predictability and off-balance-sheet nature suits some businesses well.
Worth evaluating alongside outright purchase, particularly if cash flow predictability matters to your business.
What to Do With Old Hardware
Responsible disposal matters. Hard drives should be securely wiped (not just formatted) or physically destroyed before disposal. Simply donating or disposing of old computers with data still on them is a data protection risk. Your IT provider should handle this, and should provide certificates of data destruction if required.