Why not ask about the weather instead? 😀 It’s much easier to forecast the climate than predict long-term trends for computing equipment.

We are always reluctant to give long-term forecasts for hardware purchases. There are periods in computing where hardware advances are massive and a three year old computer is -ancient-. And then there are other periods where a three year old PC is just fine. Here are some general recommendations:

1. There are almost always at least three tiers of hardware in any class: high performance, a year old, and bargain. It’s usually best to go for the middle choice, or at least one rung below ‘current’. After a year, a product has been around long enough to have dropped in price but (usually, not always) still provides good value for a few years.
2. As much as you can, buy for today (ie. buy the absolute minimum.) Prices can drop so precipitously that a might easily depreciate to 10% of its original purchase price after three years.
3. If you have the acumen, consider assembling your own systems or buying used hardware. Yes there is a risk, but understand that buying from ‘name’ vendors is like buying insurance: you’re paying a premium for an unknown quantity of service in case something goes wrong. Our experience with IT companies has varied -wildly-. Some offer great value and some charge insane amounts and don’t provide much better service than one could get by hiring a company on an as-needed basis.
4. Recognise that regardless of what you buy and who you buy from you will probably pay the same dollars every time you buy—you’ll just be buying more performance.
5. One area to not skimp on: Server configuration! We cannot stress this enough: The overwhelming number of horrible support issues we have had to deal with over the years have been a result not of hardware failure but rather a problem with the server which either prevented Simple Accounting from running or made it impossible for us to connect remotely and troubleshoot. The most expensive server in the world is worth nothing if the basics (Windows Server, SQL Server, Remote Access, Internet access) are not configured properly. Whether you buy a turnkey system or outsource support you must ensure that your system is properly set up. This is the one area we cannot help with from a distance. Many turnkey vendors earn their money not by providing the best hardware, but rather by offering top notch setups. In our opinion, that is worth a lot. As we like to say: Get us off on the right foot and we’ll take it from there.