id="article-body" class="row" section="article-body"> The Valve Index is for PC gamers who use Steam VR...and you may not need all its parts.

Sarah Tew/CNET There are plenty of PC-connected VR headsets, and most of them work the same way: a set of full-motion controllers, a bulky head display that has a long thick cord going to your PC. Maybe it has extra room sensors you need to set up. Maybe it doesn't. 

The Valve Index is not much different from other PC VR headsets in that regard (see also: Oculus Rift S, HTC Vive, or Microsoft's VR offerings). It's not wireless, it doesn't have eye tracking, and it hasn't reinvented a way to not be a bulky, cabled headset.

But it is probably one of the best PC VR headsets of the moment, and its wild new controllers feel like the future.

And yet I recently had a realization I never thought of the first time I tried the hardware weeks ago: this doesn't feel like a new system. That's because you don't need to buy all of it if you're alrea