I grew up in Holland and I don't recall even seeing Box springs in stores till the late 1980's. My family's favorite bed is Auping. Too bad it costs as much to stip it to NY city as it costs to get it from NYC to Buffalo NY. The beds are only 6" thick, but increadibly supportive and comfortable. My parents have had their base since the mid 1970's and replaced the matress pads once in the early 1990's. I've had various spring mattresses with box springs, and I can tell you that I HATE box springs. I had one that started to squeek after a few years (not covered under warrentee ofcourse). One of the box springs under our current bed broke on one side. We turned it around so we don't notice it, but we hope to get an IKEA bed with wooden slats for support and then upgrade to a better mattress.
If you are on the taller end of things, you can get extended twin beds. These are the same length as a King (it uses the exdact same box spring as a King size bed as well except the King uses two). As far as materials go, everything I've read state you should not expect to get more 10 to 15 years out of a matress.
Happy riding,
André