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Hardware Replacement Calculator
Compare the 4-year cost of keeping old business laptops against a planned refresh. See where the hidden costs actually sit. Calibrated for Australian SMBs running on Microsoft 365.
4.7× more expensive
Keeping a fleet of 15 laptops past year 4 typically costs around 4.7× what a planned refresh would, mostly through lost productivity and break-fix support, not the hardware.
112 hours / year
A 2018 Microsoft study found PCs beyond 4 years old cost users about 112 hours of productivity per year. At an A$90,000 salary, that is over A$5,000 per device, every year.
2.7× more repairs
Techaisle's research found a PC over 4 years old is 2.7× more likely to need maintenance, and the cost to repair often equals or exceeds the cost of replacing the hardware.
Your fleet, your numbers
Estimate the cost of holding on too long
Adjust the three inputs below. The numbers update live. Defaults reflect a typical Australian SMB running Microsoft 365. All figures are in Australian dollars (AUD).
Assumptions you can tune
These are our defaults from the research below. Change them to match your own experience. The model is only as honest as the numbers you put into it.
Productivity is the dominant driver in this model and is an estimate. The failing-gear default of 38 hours per device a year stays deliberately conservative against Microsoft's 112. New gear is set at 50% of that figure by default, because modern parts, in-warranty support and the discrete-fault failure mode (versus cumulative aging slowdown) all reduce, but do not eliminate, lost time. Planned-refresh support sits at $0 because in-warranty devices are covered under the AgileMANAGED baseline. Use the assumptions on the left to pressure-test every figure against your own numbers.
Why Microsoft 365 users feel it more
Modern Microsoft 365 is heavy on old hardware
App bloat
Teams, Outlook and SharePoint are RAM-hungry. On a laptop with 8 GB RAM and a slower CPU, switching between them can take 30 to 60 seconds at a time, several times an hour.
OneDrive sync
Old hard drives and early-generation SSDs struggle to keep up with continuous cloud sync. The result is file version conflicts, system hangs, and the occasional reboot to clear it.
Security gaps
Windows Hello, hardware-level encryption and conditional access work best on machines with TPM 2.0 and modern processors. Older laptops either lack these or run them poorly.
What we recommend
Stagger your refresh, do not big-bang it
Replacing the whole fleet in one go is expensive and disruptive. Replacing five laptops a year on a rolling 3 to 4 year cycle smooths cash flow, keeps the team productive, and means you are never staring at fifteen ageing devices at the same time.
Plan: a rolling refresh
- Map each device to a planned replacement year
- Refresh roughly a third of the fleet each year
- Hold a small pool of spares (1 in 10) for fast swaps
- Standardise the device model so support and imaging are simple
- Build the refresh into the operating budget, not capex shock
Buying options to consider
- Outright purchase, owned and depreciated on your books
- Hardware-as-a-Service: monthly per-user fee covering device, warranty and refresh
- Certified refurbished business hardware: typically 35–50% off new for a 3-year TCO, when sourced through reputable channels
We help AgileMANAGED clients plan, source and roll out the fleet through AgileEQUIP, including the upfront audit, hardware spec, deployment, and decommission.
Honest about the maths
What is in each number
The calculator is a planning aid, not an audited model. Here is what sits behind each line so you can pressure-test it against your own numbers.
Per device, per year, keeping old gear
- Hardware: $0 (already paid for).
- IT support & break-fix: default A$800 of overage above your normal AgileMANAGED baseline. Reflects the 2.7× higher maintenance rate Techaisle measured in 700-business surveys. Editable above as a direct dollar amount.
- Lost productivity: 38 hours per year at your hourly rate. Conservative; the 2018 Microsoft study put it at 112 hours per year per user for devices beyond 4 years. Editable above, with a realisation slider for how much of that lost time becomes real lost output.
- Repairs & parts: ~$100. Batteries, screens, keyboards. Parts for older models can be 5 to 10× more expensive than current generation.
Per device, per year, planned refresh
- Hardware: cost per device divided across 4 years.
- IT support & break-fix: A$0. Newer in-warranty devices sit inside the standard AgileMANAGED baseline, so they do not add overage on top of the monthly fee.
- Lost productivity: defaults to 50% of the failing-gear figure. New gear is not zero, but the model treats it as roughly half because: modern parts and platforms fail less often; in-warranty support gets repair turnaround down; and when new equipment does fail, it fails as a discrete hardware fault (one event, fixed under warranty) rather than the cumulative aging slowdown that drags on old gear day after day. Editable above as a ratio.
- Repairs & parts: $0. Devices are inside the manufacturer warranty period.
All figures on this page are in Australian dollars (AUD). Sources: Microsoft & Techaisle, The Cost of Hanging On to Old PCs (2018); Techaisle, SMB PC Refresh Trends (2018, surveyed 700+ small businesses); ScalePad, The True Cost of Slow Computers. Where the underlying studies quote US dollars (for example Microsoft's US$2,636 all-in cost of an old PC, roughly A$4,000), figures are converted to Australian dollars at approximate current rates. Hourly rate is calculated as annual salary divided by 1,920 working hours (48 weeks × 40 hours).