3 Year Old Servers

Using 3 year old kit with Linux on as servers won't save money, it'll cost money as they'll likely be power hungry monsters - The aquisition cost of servers is outweighed by the cost of powering/cooling them and has been for quite some time.

It's not just PCs that UK.gov throws away, there's perfectly serviceable networking kit - Although the banks are just as bad (as are most large organisations). I know someone who works for a "local" bank and the kit they throw out (in to skips) in terms of firewalls, switches, routers etc. that is perfectly serviceable and cost millions originally, is frightening.