1. A method of providing a cost estimate for a data processing system, the method comprising: selecting application programs from a set of application programs, each application program having objects, entering load profile data for the selected application programs, retrieving a set of sizing coefficients for the objects of the selected application programs, estimating hardware requirements for the data processing system for the objects of the selected application programs by entering the sizing coefficients and the load profile data into a sizing model, entering the hardware requirements for the objects of the selected application programs into a cost estimation component to generate cost estimates for the objects of the selected application programs, calculating the total hardware requirement by adding the hardware requirements for the objects of the selected application programs, and calculating the total cost estimate for the data processing system by adding the cost estimates for the objects of the selected application programs.