Apart from the obvious minimum equipment level:

1. 1GBS Network
2. Fast Computer
3. 4GB RAM

If sage still runs slow it is probably because of your antivirus, do the following.

Sage Antivirus Exclusions (from official sage document / email)

The following folders are used only by Sage software. Excluding these from the antivirus may go a long way to improving the performance of Sage Accounts whilst retaining the security of the antivirus software. The reason must be cause the files are constantly accessed and changed and the antivirus then sees it as a new file.

Because of how sage works it doesnt really like Anti Virus software interfering with it. What happens antivirus can cause a slow down in sage because the antivirus sees the constant changes in the database files (amongst others) and as such keeps checking that it is not a virus. The results can vary from Anti Virus to Anti Virus. A full software failure is never the case and it is just a matter of performance.

This is a known issue with sage and they have issue a list of folders that need excluding. They are as follows:

See Microsoft Antivirus Sage Line 50 Exclusions at the bottom for the list of exclusions i actually use.

• The Sage Accounts program directory.
• The Sage Accounts data directory.
  
  Tip: Exclude the folder that contains the ACCDATA folder. If the customer does not want to exclude this entire folder, they should exclude ACCDATA and the following folders that are located in the same folder as ACCDATA: ARCHIVES, ATTACHMENTS, BITMAP, CONFIGS, CRITERIA, DEFAULTS, EXPORTS, FAX, IMPORTS, INVOICES, JOURNALS, LABELS, LAYOUTS, LETTERS, MEMO, REPORTS, TASKOPT, TEMPLATE, TMail, VATRTNS
• C:\Program Files\Common Files\SageSBD
• C:\Program Files\Common Files\Sage Line50
• C:\Program Files\Common Files\Sage Report Designer 2007
• C:\Program Files\Common Files\Sage Shared
• C:\Program Files\Sage EBanking
• C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Sage (Non Windows Vista)
• C:\ProgramData\Sage (Windows 7 / Vista)

Note: Depending on the version of Sage Accounts, some of the folders listed above may not exist.

Note: Wherever possible, you should exclude the folders used exclusively by Sage Accounts as this will cover the file extensions listed in this section.

If this is not possible, you may be able to exclude files with a particular file extension. However, the file extensions listed here may not be unique to files used by Sage Accounts and the customer may not want to exclude these from their antivirus software. If the customer is in any doubt please refer them to their IT Administrator.

Data Files

*.DTA
*.DTH
*.COA

Report and Layout Files - Sage Accounts v12 and below

*.SRT
*.SLY
*.SLT
*.SLB
*.RPT

Report and Layout Files - Sage Accounts v13 and above

*.report
*.layout
*.letter
*.label

Memo Files

*.SLM
*.PLM
*.NLM
*.ILM
*.BLM
*.CLM
*.DLM

Criteria Files

*.SLC
*.SLI
*.PRC
*.PRI
*.NMC
*.NMI
*.BKC
*.BKI
*.SKC
*.SKI
*.IVC
*.IVI
*.SPC
*.SPI
*.PCC
*.PPI
*.PCI
*.PPC
*.REC
*.REI
*.SAC
*.SAI
*.IPC
*.IPI
*.PDC
*.PDI
*.DPC
*.DPI
*.FIC
*.FII
*.CPC
*.CPI
*.CSC
*.CSI

Microsoft Antivirus Sage Line 50 Exclusions (by Lancastrian IT)

• C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Sage (might only be present in XP)
• C:\Program Files\Common Files\Sage Line50
• C:\Program Files\Common Files\Sage Report Designer 2007
• C:\Program Files\Common Files\Sage SBD
• C:\Program Files\Common Files\Sage SData
• C:\Program Files\Common Files\Sage Shared
• C:\Program Files\Sage
• C:\Program Files\Sage EBanking
• C:\ProgramData\Sage (Windows 7 / Vista)

NB: when using remote sage you should map the drive and not use direct uncs paths, for some reason this causes massive issues with data and speed.

Update to the Anti Virus exclusions advise from Sage

[12122] Modifying your anti virus software to avoid conflicts with Sage Accounts and Sage Drive

Some are all of this might be applicable.

• The Sage Accounts program directory.
• The Sage Accounts data directory.

As above but slightly modified. I cant remember if these need to excluded anymore

• C:\Program Files\Common Files\Sage SBD
• C:\Program Files\Common Files\Sage Line50
• C:\Program Files\Common Files\Sage Report Designer 2007
• C:\Program Files\Common Files\Sage Shared
• C:\Program Files\Sage EBanking
• C:\Program Files\Sage\AccountsService - v21 and above

Tip: If you're using a 64-bit version of Windows, replace Program Flies with Program Files (x86).

• C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Sage
• If you're using Windows 7 or Windows Vista this folder is C:\ProgramData\Sage

• C:\Program Files\Sage
• C:\Program Files\Sage\Accounts
• C:\Program Files\Sage\Assemblies

As per the information in sage's about page

• Program Directory - C:\Program Files\Sage\Accounts\
• Data Directory - C:\Shared Files\Sage Accounts\PM2011\ACCDATA
• Settings Directory - C:\ProgramData\Sage\Accounts\