Had to choose between a refurbished Dell and a custom build for my workbench PC

I went with the refurb Dell Optiplex for $200 instead of building my own because I needed something quick for diagnostics. It's been solid for booting into Hiren's and running stress tests, but the lack of PCIe slots is already annoying me. Has anyone else regretted going the cheap route for a bench machine?

2 comments

2 Comments

jamiekim3d ago

Honestly, how many expansion cards do you actually need on a bench machine though? I've got a couple of Optiplexes and I just use USB for most stuff like NICs and dongles, which works fine. Are you trying to throw in a dedicated GPU or a logic analyzer card where you really need that PCIe slot?

wilson.jana2d ago

Wait, are you saying USB NICs are always a straight swap for PCIe ones though? I've had some weird latency issues with USB dongles on a bench machine, especially when flashing or debugging. Like, if you're using a logic analyzer or a dedicated FPGA card, you def need that PCIe slot for the bandwidth, USB just won't cut it.