Why do you need 3 laptops? It's 2017 you would have to hunt and likely get old stuff to get non-HD at this point. Why 2 desktops? What's the justification? 5 person team? Any reason for a file server? Use DropBox or something for a lot less money, they eat the hardware costs and backup costs. You don't have to waste time which you will have little to none of fighting hardware issues as they creep up.

Now each team member will need a computer, either desktop or laptop and multiple monitors. Always get the best you can. You're making an MMO so like 20-40 artists, 10 or so level designers and 5-10 programmers along with some designers and writers should get you started. Anything less, it will be very unlikely to get any traction and player base. Most indie MMOs do not do well nor last long. Some may, but it's rare.

Just a reality check. It can be done with fewer but unlikely to ever be called an MMO or have more than a few concurrent players at a time.

I am looking at the hard ware for development and the servers to have everything on site. The problem with the cloud or drop box is simple someone else has your data and having your data in your hand is better then allowing someone else to control it.

Was interested in what answers people would give to @[member='icreepin'], on this as I can identify with his reason, but surprise surprise - none

Has he got a valid point?

For a small team, you don't need any big fancy servers.

A tiny little NAS running Linux, such as a Synology DiskStation, is enough to handle all your file storage problems (and even run a few kinds of servers if required). Back it up to the cloud (encrypt everything first if you're paranoid), and/or onto external hard-drives that you personally carry out of the office.

One desktop or laptop per developer is fine.

If you're making an online game, you'd be crazy to actually host it on your own hardware -- it's much cheaper to rent someone else's hardware in a data center... so you don't need any production servers in your office. You can probably run test/dev servers on your actual development PC's.