PC FORMAT 234 OUT NOW!

Henry Winchester's picture
Henry Winchester - 26 November 2009 - 12:47pm
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For me, Christmas is like any other day of the year, only you're drunk all day. Like any other day of the year, then. But it's also a good time for the 1:7 ratio. What's the 1:7 ratio, I hear you cry? The idea is that for every £1 you spend on gifts for friends and relatives, you spend £7 on yourself. It's a loving and gracious way to spend the fest, and what Jesus would have wanted.

But, what to do with all that extra cash? The latest PC Format - out now, dontcha know - is packed full of bargains. First up, the Jeremy Laird has lassooed six of the finest monitors under £200 and given them a run for their money. Then we took £342 and used it to build a complete DirectX 11 rig. We love Christmas.

For me, Christmas is like any other day of the year, only you're drunk all day. Like any other day of the year then. But it's also a good time for the 1:7 ratio. What's the 1:7 ratio, I hear you cry? The idea is that for every £1 you spend on gifts for friends and relatives, you spend £7 on yourself. It's a loving and gracious way to spend the fest, and what Jesus would have wanted.

But, what to do with all that extra cash? The latest PC Format - out now, dontcha know - is packed full of bargains. First up, the Jeremy Laird has lassooed six of the finest monitors under £200 and given them a run for their money. Then we took £342 from the PC Format charity kitty and used it to build a complete DirectX 11 rig. We love Christmas.

We've been thoroughly investigating AMD's new DirectX 11 graphics cards. They range in price and performance, but is it worth investing just to get those extra tesselation effects? You'll have to buy the mag to find out.

In other features, I achieved perma-tinnitus in a headphones round-up, and Chris Lloyd wrangles XP onto Windows 7 machines for his feature on virtualisation. Neil Mohr achieves even mohr value for money by replacing a broken laptop screen, and Luis is on hand with his usual sardonic advice.

In gaming features, me and Dave got some hands on time with the ace Just Cause 2, and our reviews include the double-whammy of Left 4 Dead 2 and Dragon Age: Origins. Jim Rossignol loots to high heaven in our Borderlands InDepth, and also gets his head round level design in a complete guide to the craft.

All this and loads more in your latest PC Format, in the shops now. And it's under one Christmas Pound.

HARDWARE REVIEWS

Asus HD 5850
HIS HD 5770
SAPPHIRE HD 5750
AMD Radeon HD 5 series
Scan 3XS P55 OC
Kingston 40GB SSDNow V series
AMD Athlon II X3 435
Western Digital 2TB Caviar Black
MSI P55M-GD45
Asus P6TD Deluxe
Thermaltake Wing RS301
Roccat Kova
AMD Phenom II X4 965
Asus M4A79XTD EVO


GAME PREVIEWS

Just Cause 2
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
The Settlers 7

GAME REVIEWS

Left 4 Dead 2
Dragon Age: Origins
Race On
Cities XL
Football Manager 2010
FIFA 10
PES 2010
Tropico 3
Scorpion: Disfi gured
Machinarium
Eufloria
The Void

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  • Look at that thing on the cover! What is it? A nuclear power station? A Combine base from Half-Life 2? A rejected robot from Transforminators? No, it's a PC! A hulking great compartmentalised beast of a PC. In ten years, all PCs will look like this. Even your Mum's. Adam Oxford's produced a complete guide to future tech, so you'll know exactly what to spend your cash on to build the PC of the future.

    Of course, the most important part of your PC is the CPU. There are a fair few bargains out there from AMD and Intel. Jeremy Laird has given them a run for their money, and written masses on each and every one. An essential guide for now, and the future. Jeremy also tried Intel's mobile Core i7 and Core i5 chips, which feature integrated GPUs and will be heading to a laptop near you soon.


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