"Given the budget, good quality new PCs are likely to be the most stable, and in many instances will be the preferred technology choice. However, their high purchase price remains a key inhibitor to lowering their comparative total cost of ownership (TCO) in a small business, NGO or school. New PC purchase prices can account for 63-85% of the ownership costs that make TCO different between new and refurbished PCs. In contrast, a key TCO inhibitor for refurbished PCs is their failure rate and associated ongoing costs, accounting for 64-75% of the comparative TCO costs. A network of good quality refurbished PCs (imported brands such as Hewlett Packard, Dell and IBM) offers a window period of stability, making them a viable technology choice under certain conditions. They are likely to have the lowest TCO over five years. While the hardware replacement costs over that period could be the equivalent of the purchase price of the PCs, most of these costs are likely to occur in the final years of ownership. The high frequency of failures, together with the high ongoing costs for lower quality refurbished PCs (some 75% of the comparative totals), suggests that they should not be considered a viable technology option. In the case of lower quality refurbished PCs, hardware replacement costs alone can be more than 140% the purchase price of the PCs. A high level of failure can be expected throughout the five years of ownership." (Executive summary, p.4)