(FORTUNE Magazine) – When the office computers are more than three years old, it's probably time to consider some shiny new hardware. And now is a great opportunity.

For one thing, the public's PC buying frenzy has leveled off and manufacturers have lowered prices to stimulate demand. In addition, the uses of the PC have changed, and with that, the demands you place on your equipment. Many small businesses are putting a lot of stress on their equipment by running multiple applications simultaneously (several open browser windows and software programs). Some of those apps are also power hungry: Graphics software, for example, can easily choke on those old 90Mhz and 133Mhz machines that were the hot rods of the day before yesterday.

How to start shopping? All the major vendors will let you log on to their sites, select systems, and configure them for your particular needs. You can save your custom configuration, print it out, or come back to it later. That makes it easy to compare prices, since you can set up identical machines at two or three vendor sites. And most major vendors have created small-business departments that offer extra handholding and machines designed specifically for office use, with built-in network connectors and minimal graphics and sound capabilities.

And the prices are terrific. Let's start with the big server, a kind of central PC that manages e-mail, file transfers, Internet access, and printing for all your employees. Servers were once big, expensive, and difficult to manage, but no longer. Dell sells the PowerEdge 1300 server, a cool black tower designed especially for small businesses and priced for as little as $1,200. Of course, by the time you add a few essentials, such as an operating system and additional memory, the price is closer to $3,000. But with the right software, this server can easily support a couple of dozen users. The key to ease of use is Microsoft's Small Business Server (around $800), software that makes setting up e-mail accounts and Internet access as easy as checking off boxes on a list.

Prices are also low for desktop PCs. At Micron's small-business Website (www.micronpc.com), I quickly customized a solid desktop system that would satisfy the needs of most employees. A Millenia EX with a Pentium III 733Mhz processor, 128MB of memory (the minimum I would consider for an office setting), a 15GB hard drive, and a 17-inch monitor rang up a mere $1,466. That includes a network adapter and Microsoft's Windows 2000, which is my first choice for an operating system in a business setting. Win2K is far more robust than Windows 98 or the new Windows ME that the company is currently touting.

Printers? There are plenty of bargains. It used to be gospel that a small business should have a laser printer. However, inkjets have progressed so far that they will produce black-and-white documents that are difficult to distinguish from the lasers. And you get the added bonus of brilliant color and high-quality color-photo reproduction--that's important if your business produces complex documents for clients and sales pitches. Some excellent models include the Epson Stylus Color 900, the Canon BJC-8200, and the Hewlett-Packard DeskJet 970Cxi. All three sell in the $300 to $400 range.

If space is a premium in your home office or small business, you may want to consider a multifunction printer. These devices will print, scan, copy, and even fax your documents. Some popular models include the Xerox WorkCentre 390 (around $500), Brother MFC7150C ($300), and HP OfficeJet G95 ($800). The pricier G95 is notable because it includes a flatbed scanner, making it easier to copy and fax from magazines and books without tearing out the pages.

If your company's budget is so tight you can resist today's bargains, you can still give your old computers a boost with a memory upgrade. Computers sold as recently as three years ago often shipped with just 32MB of RAM. Moving up to 64MB or 128MB of RAM can add a lot of pep to an older machine. So, happy shopping. In my next column, I'll look at the small-business options for high-speed Internet access, the next big bottleneck for today's user.

JOEL DREYFUSS has been writing about technology for 15 years. He can be reached by e-mail at jdreyfuss@attglobal.net.