There are many ways in which to test the performance of a PC, but even the simplest metrics can be informative. They don't come much simpler than boot time, and what could be more important than being able to get to work without having to wait around?
Some of our older readers will recall how sluggish the process used to be, but these days our systems are able to fire up before we've managed to get seated. Always an interesting point of discussion, so for this week's question we're asking; how long does your PC take to boot?
There are many methods of taking such measurements, but we're going to ask you to perform a cold boot the old-fashioned way. Take a stopwatch and time how long it takes from the moment you press the power button for the OS desktop to come into view (if, like us, you're really pedantic, you may want to wait for the tray icons to fully appear).
