I am looking for information regarding pros/cons of leasing vs. buying
notebooks and/or PCs.  Are there any financial models around this or
best practices that are applicable to large companies procuring large
blocks of PCs?

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Request for Question Clarification by easterangel-ga on 10 Jul 2003 16:13 PDT

Hi! I was able to find articles about the pros and cons of leasing PCs
but more geared towards small businesses. Would these be ok as an
answer as well?

Thanks!

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Clarification of Question by markam-ga on 12 Jul 2003 08:09 PDT

I am more interested in how the leasing of PCs applies to large leases
that would include blocks of 100 to 1000 PCs in a single lease.

Contact the company/companies you are considering leasing/buying from.
They should be able to supply you with a comparison with the TCO of
buying, depreciation, lease cost, lease time, everything you need.

If you are buying 100 to 1000 PCs at once, it's a large order. You
should definitely check out the PC vendors. Generally, leasing is a
better option to you. PC's lifespan is relatively short -- when did
the Pentium II come out? 1997! That's merely 6 years!

But we are in Internet age now, and you have another choice -- you can
buy it upfront and use online auction house such as eBay to sell your
PC to upgrade. More work on your side, but IF you can sell your PC in
time (that is, before their value go down to nothing), this approach
"may" be more cost effective.

There are several lessors that specialize in this area.

Maxium.net (Canada)
CSI Leasing (North America)

Also try elaonline.com (Equipment Leasing Association of America)