STOP HOLDING YOUR MACHINE BACK; UNLOCK ITS FULL POTENTIAL
WE LOVE PERFORMANCE on MaximumPC. It would be our middle name, if we had one. Whether we’re looking at high-end hardware or the latest budget offerings, we want the best performance possible from the components used, often pushing things even harder with a little judicious overclocking to eke out those last few percentage points. There’s something plenty of us fall on down, though, and that’s on the software front. Specifically, the OS.
If performance is important to you— and given you’re reading MaximumPC, it probably is—a clean install of Windows is what you really want. Whether you’ve just installed a new component, or have been rocking the same hardware for a while, cutting out all the detritus and bloat of a well-used operating system can give any machine a new lease of life. Achieving this nirvana isn’t easy, though, especially if you’re not one to maintain a tight regime of file management and data organization.
We’re alluding to how you back up here, basically. How you organize your files, your data, your irreplaceable documents, so that you can wipe your drives and start again. Despite banging on about such things for years, we’re well aware that plenty of readers can’t simply wipe their current install and start anew. It just isn’t always a practical solution. Which is why this issue we show you how to achieve that fresh install vibe, without losing any of your precious data. Turn to page 24 to discover how to give your system a massive performance boost.
One of the major sources of bloat for your operating system comes from the software you use, and as time goes on, the big applications have more and more “features” that you probably don’t use. One option is to look at some of the budget alternatives to those big apps that don’t necessarily need to sell a new version every year, and instead focus on the essentials. Starting on page 30, we look at the best budget alternatives around right now; although, as ever, if there’s a package that you use and want to recommend to your fellow readers, please drop me a line, and I’ll be more than happy to share.
If you’ve been tempted by the VR bug, but don’t want to stump up the cash for the full PC VR experience, then you may be interested by the tutorial on page 56 that shows you how to get Steam VR running on the more affordable Oculus Go (at $250 for the 64GB version, it’s a much more palatable way of experiencing virtual worlds). We then go on to look at turning a Raspberry Pi into a Steam Link, so that you can enjoy your games collections from the comfort of your couch.
On top of all that, we also have our quiz of the year for you to sink your teeth into, to discover just how big a geek you really are. Regardless of how well you do, I hope you enjoy the issue. Alan Dexteris Maximum PC’s executive editor and a punish er of hardware. He’ s been atech journalist for over 20 years, and has no problem up setting the PC industry as a whole.