Generic benchmark

[c4kprogram]

I am involved in a non-profit refurbishing program that upgrades desktop and laptop computers to Win 10 plus Office 2010 (obtained as Microsoft Registered Refurbishers), plus several general applications. We accept donated computers which we refurbish. Grossly underpowered units have Linux-Mint installed.

We are in need of a general purpose benchmarking program to help us decide whether to install Win 10, Linux-Mint, or salvage parts from the unit. Is this something PassMark software could help us with and is it possible to boot from a USB device without booting into an OS?

[David (PassMark)]

While PerformanceTest can help with the benchmarking, it can be painful to turn it into a full self booting solution.

The main problem is that it is difficult to get all the correct device drivers, for all the possible hardware you might encounter, loaded up into a WinPE self booting solution.
And not having the correct drivers can prevent functionality from working (e.g. DirectX & OpenGL being a big problem for self booting) or effect the performance of some components (e.g they switch to working in a 'safe' default mode when the best drivers aren't available.

[c4kprogram]

David, thanks for your reply. My next question is whether we are better off continuing to use our current criteria for making the decision or continue to explore bench marking. Out current criteria are: (1) dual core or better and (2) processor speed of 2.0 GHz or better.

[David (PassMark)]

I wouldn't run window on less than 4GB of RAM nowadays.
A SSD can make up for a slightly slow CPU in terms of end user usability.