Free guide · Edition 01 · September 2026
The Rand Price of Compute
The South African IT Infrastructure Buyer's Guide 2026
Every buyer’s first question is the price, and nobody answers it in rand. So we pulled every live price in our catalogue on 10 September 2026 and wrote it down — servers, storage, networking, backup power and racks, VAT-inclusive, low / median / high, in 14 pages you can budget on.
- 6 595 live prices across 22 categories, dated
- The Dell PowerEdge model map with live rand bands
- UPS, heat and running-cost maths you can reuse
- The ten-point procurement checklist and spec-sheet template
Prefer the live numbers? The price index and the load-shedding calculator are open, no form.
Reserve your copy
Edition 01 lands on Wednesday 16 September. We email it the morning it is out.
Inside the guide
One idea, one table, one budget line — per page.
The 2026 price index
22 categories, 6 595 live products, one pull date — and how to read a low / median / high band.
How much does a server cost?
Rack, tower, GPU, NAS and mini PC bands; new versus certified refurbished, with the same 12-month cover.
Dell PowerEdge decoded
Read the model number, the 12G–16G ladder, and live rand bands by model.
Tower, rack, NAS or mini PC?
The decision in three questions, with the band for each answer.
Networking without the traps
PoE budgets, managed versus unmanaged, fibre past 100 m, and what enterprise firewalls really cost.
What size UPS?
The sizing maths on a worked example, UPS bands by kVA, and the electricity bill nobody budgets.
Warranty and the CPA
Where do you claim it? Our cover by condition, and five questions for any seller.
The procurement checklist
Ten things to settle before you sign, plus a one-page spec-sheet template.
Three sample pages
Real bands, real dates, no estimates.
Who it is for
IT buyers and the MSPs who serve them.
If you are budgeting a refresh, comparing quotes, or putting a number in front of a client, the bands give you a defensible rand figure with a date on it. MSPs and integrators get a closing section on deal registration — the sourcing desk behind your deals.
Trade & reseller partnersHow we priced it
Live, published, VAT-inclusive.
Every band is three live rand prices from our own published catalogue on the pull date: the lowest listing in the class, the median and the highest. The median is the typical price — not an average, so one fully-loaded machine cannot drag it. Bands are for budgeting; a quotation is a firm, dated rand price for a verified configuration, sourced to order, landed in rand and warranted in Johannesburg.
Questions
About the guide.
Where do the prices come from?
From the Server Hub price index: every band is three live, published, VAT-inclusive rand prices on the pull date — the cheapest listing in the class, the median and the most expensive. Nothing is estimated and nothing is a quotation.
Is the guide free?
Yes. We ask for a name, a work email, a company and a role so we know who is reading it, and whether you want the next edition. There is no sales sequence attached to a download.
Who is it for?
IT managers and owners budgeting a refresh, procurement teams comparing quotes, and MSPs and integrators who want a rand reference to put in front of clients — with deal registration for the trade.
Priced for here.
When you are ready to buy, send us the spec sheet on page 12. A quotation comes back in rand, dated, warranted.