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The old tower PC that finally got a second life as a test rig
I had a Dell OptiPlex 7010 sitting in my garage for 2 years collecting dust. Last month I threw in a used GTX 1050 Ti and a spare 500GB SSD, and it went from a paperweight to my go-to bench tester for GPU diagnostics. The difference is night and day when I'm running furmark or checking power draw on customer cards. Has anyone else repurposed old office desktops instead of buying dedicated test hardware?
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williamschmidt17d ago
Furmark on a 10 year old OptiPlex can skew your readings, the PCIe slot and PSU limits are way different than what a modern card will see in a customer rig. A used 1050 Ti is fine for testing basic output but when you're looking at power draw spikes or coil whine, you're not getting the full picture on that old platform. It works for a quick pass, but dedicated test gear gives you consistent numbers you can actually trust.
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