As Maximum PC heads into a
new era, we reminisce about
the origins of our favorite
magazine and how far the PC
itself has come in that time...
NEARLY 300 ISSUES OF PURE,
PC-driven passion. That’s the
landmark we are approaching
as Maximum PC prepares to
reveal its new editor. You’ll have
to wait until next issue to find
out more about that. But as the
magazine heads into a new era
with fresh leadership, now is a
good time to look back on where it all began.
The first issue of Maximum PC was published
in September 1998. But its real origins date back
to August 1996 and the first issue of Boot, the
magazine that would later become Maximum PC.
It’s no surprise to discover the first issue of Boot
set the template in so many ways, leading with the
“Dream Machine” cover. DIYing our own PC from
hand-picked components was the way, the truth,
and the light back in 1996. Not much has changed
since. We still prefer to roll up our sleeves and short
out some circuits than buy off-the-shelf. Something
that has changed, however, is the hardware.
Take that 1996 Dream Machine’s CPU. How about
200MHz worth of pure Pentium goodness? Yours for
$495 (more like $850 in today’s inflation-adjusted
cash). Of course, back then you didn’t just have Intel
CPUs, but also AMD and Cyrix chips. Cyrix’s 166MHz
686 processor was competitive, though AMD’s 586
chip was a chump, more a tweaked 386/486 hybrid
than a true 586 instruction set processor.THE BEST OF
MAXIMUM PC
Here’s the kicker, to go with the Pentium CPU, we
recommended a motherboard with the VT82C580VP
Apollo-VP chipset, adding a cool $1,000 (call it
$1,750 today). Suddenly, current chip-shortage
component prices don’t look quite so bad. To that,
add $400 for 32MB of DRAM and a piffling $350
for a video card. As for the latter, that bought you a
Matrox Millenium with a mighty 4MB of WRAM (yes,
WRAM) in PCI format and with full DirectX support,
That’s just simple DirectX, back when the idea of a
multimedia API in Windows was novel.
Screen-wise, our choice was a 17-inch, glass-
tubed, Trinitron-based Eizo Nanao T2-17TS. With a
maximum resolution of 1,250x938, it cost a wallet-
wilting $1,000. For storage, we plumped for a $400
SCSI card and a Quantum Atlas 2.1GB HDD. Get a
load of 2.1GB mass storage! Chuck in a CD-ROM and
a Zip drive, for about 200 bucks each, plus a $200
sound card, a $350 ISDN modem, plus keyboard,
mouse, and speakers, not to mention a 300W power
supply for $100 and a steel case with three 5.25-
inch bays and a couple of 3.5-inch bays and you have
what was then the ultimate PC for $5,000, or near
enough double that in today’s money.
It’s intriguing to think what nearly $10,000 would
buy you today and, indeed, just how outdated it will
seem in another 25 years. While you ponder all that,
why not enjoy some of our favorite covers from the
last 200 issues of Maximum PC plus our take on the
best builds and Dream Machines over the years.The first issue of
Boot in August 1996,
which would be
renamed Maximum
PC a few years later.
FEB 2022 MAXIMU MPC 51