Back Issues

Issue: 84
January, 2008
It’s time for another packed issue of the best tech-gaming magazine in Australia!

This month our flagship feature is a tensely fought Head to Head battle between graphics cards manufacturers to see who has the best 8800GT card on the market. We bench ‘em, test ‘em, and review ‘em – ten cards put through their paces in Crysis, 3DMark06 and our own labs. A must read for anyone looking to upgrade to the latest NVIDIA chip.

But that’s not all, of course…

Issue: 83
December, 2007
This month’s Atomic is packed to the rafters with cool stuff, but one of the things we’re most proud of is coverage of Atomic LIVE 2007. We’ve got a round up of the day, great photos of the exhibition hall, cosplay entrants, speedbuilding and even a few sneaky shots of Atomicans chilling out after the big day. It was a day of days, and you really need to see what we got up to – and come along next year if you missed out! But it wasn’t all work and no play. Check out the rest of the issue’s highlights:

DDR2 vs DDR3
Is the new kid on the block worth the extra bucks? We look at what both memory standards have to offer, as well as discovering where the memory industry is heading.

Xmas Gearbox Special
Six pages of the hottest toys to cross our desk for the festive season. From cheap and cheerful tech-stocking fillers to gaming laptops and even a home beer-tap solution (want! –ed), there’s something here for everyone.

Soundcard Head2Head
This month we Bring the Noise! Our sound expert Jake Carroll toughs out what the most sound proposition is for your PC needs, looking at some of the most popular cards on the market. Whether you’re a hardcore gamer or a music aficionado, this is a must-read feature.

Engine Room
Far Cry 2 is the name of the game this month, and we chat with the big brains behind this foray into high-calibre African action.

Issue: 82
November, 2007
The CPU issue
Atomic goes overboard this month, looking deep into the heart of our PCs.

Chip supertest
Learn which CPU is your next best upgrade, with our extensive benchtest roundup of the very best in budget, midrange and performance CPUs. All stress tested, with the pros and cons of each explained.

Extreme overclocking
5GHz and beyond. We go mental with totally over the top overclocking, pushing CPUs to the upper limit. Feature Liquid nitrogen, dry ice, and vapour phase change cooling.

Next Gen 3D game engines
Source, Unreal Engine 3 and CryENGINE ripped to the gibbage, looking deep into the workings of each, and what the next couple of years of gaming will tempt us with.

BIOS Tweaking
Squeeze the most out of your box with guru tweaks for maximum speed.

Issue: 81
October, 2007
Rise of the Radeon
AMD fights back, Atomic gathers all the budget range DX10 cards for a slugfest.

The Perfect Ping
All the tweaks you need for optimal networking and killing gaming lag.

Game audio evolution
The art of sound in games, top producers interviewed

Virtual Machine Gaming
Is the technology sophisticated enough to provide smooth gaming?

Build a NAScar
Put a network drive in a sexy race car body!

Issue: 80
September, 2007

Sex in games
A serious look at the sexy fun of dirty games.

HTPC tutorial
Build a better home theatre box on the cheap.

Game movies
So many great games, so few great game movies…

World in Conflict
Cold War RTS, with nukes.

Music in Linux part 3
The open source music machine

The perfect burn
The expert’s zebtastic guide to optical heaven

Interview:
Cult flick Black Sheep director Jonathan King

Issue: 79
August, 2007
Water-cooling: Wet and wired
Overlock to the max or simply run a silent PC.

Fallout 3
We asked the hard questions and got the good answers.

Computex 2007
The world’s most delightful PC hardware expo.

Head to head: Budget PC cases
Cheap PC cases with the looks.

Engine Room: BioShock
A total inside look at this next-gen FPS.

Music in Linux, part 2
The open source music machine tutorial.

Optimise Windows for dual-core
Don’t let your Core 2 or Athlon X2 waste its potential!

Issue: 78
July, 2007
Is Red Dead?
We dissect ATI/AMD’s great hope, the HD2900XT. Is it enough to hold Nvidia at bay?

Linux vs Linux
The top distros get the Atomic Head to Head treatment.

Bearlake busted
A new Core 2 chipset with the potential to be the overclocking king.

Engine Room: Fury
Aussie Auran aim to revolutionise the MMO scene, we’ve played it and we love it.

Issue: 77
June, 2007
GeForce or Ge-Farce?
NVIDIA's budget range of DirectX 10-capable cards has arrived.

A history of overclocking, part 2
The Pentium II, K6-III and beyond.

The death of role-playing?
Alexander Gambotto-Burke met with Richard Garriott, Todd Howard, Joel Billings and other famous faces in the CRPG crowd.

Head to head: Clash of the codecs
Wondering whether DivX is better than XviD, or if x264 is worth the trouble?

Engine Room: Mass Effect
BioWare has big plans for the gaming in the coming months.

Case painting 101
Ron Prouse mods and paints. He's just amazing like that.

Boost Linux for dual core
So what if dual core is here? Have you taken the time to get your operating system up-to-scratch with this emerging tech?

Issue: 76
May, 2007
Cover: PS3 in pieces
Logan Booker tears apart Sony's latest console and exposes the good, the bad and the sexy.

Overclocking: A history
Part 1
Craig Simms buries himself deep in the complex past of the souped-up CPU. Start your two-part journey with him here.

Head to head: Gaming mouses, keyboards and pads
Can't frag without the right gear, no sir! Craig Simms collected 26 assorted peripherals to nail the best combo.

Engine Room: Frontlines: Fuel of War
Christopher Taylor and Logan Booker bring you the latest in gameplay and graphics on this FPS, from the team that created Desert Combat.

PC in a suitcase, part 2
Ron Prouse finishes his tutorial on constructing the ultimate in portable PCs. Plus, we're giving it away on page 64!

Supreme Commander UI modding
Logan Booker gets dirty with the code behind Gas Powered Games' Supreme Commander, and explains how to make your own visual modifications.

Issue: 75
April, 2007
Cover: Build a budget gaming beast
Craig Simms takes the cheapest machine in the world and turns it into a monster gaming powerhouse.

Supercharge Vista
If you own Vista, and want performance, you need to read this. All the hidden stuff Microsoft doesn't want you to know.

Head to head: Gaming LCDs for the thrifty
Craig Simms contacted ViewSonic, Dell, ASUS, Acer, Samsung and Chimei and got the best, sub-$800 gaming LCDs he could find.

Engine Room: The Darkness
Starbreeze, the same company behind the excellent Chronicles of Riddick, chats to us about its next project, The Darkness… and a completely new reason to fear the mafia.

PC in a suitcase, part 1
This month we asked Ron Prouse to build a PC inside a suitcase and through his brilliant abilities, he did it. Part 2 of this tutorial will appear in the next issue.

Run Linux apps natively on Mac
Leigh Dyer wants to show you how to run all those lovely Linux apps natively on Mac. It's not as hard as it sounds, really, and Leigh can show you how.

Issue: 74
March, 2007
Cover: The mystery of the 10GHz CPU
We were promised 10GHz processors. So what the hell happened to them? Tim Dean set out to investigate this curly conundrum and chatted with Intel, AMD and others to discover the truth.

World of Modcraft
Logan Booker lived on his own refuse for a month in order to create the ultimate WoW user interface modding guide.

Head to head: Core 2 motherboard round-up
We sorted Craig Simms out with 14 Core 2 mobo and let him do whatever he wanted to them, as long as it was overclocking.

Engine Room: C&C 3
Logan Booker goes under the hood of EA Los Angeles' follow-up to one of the kings of real-time strategy.

Building the Supreme Commander PC
Luke 'Defyant' St Clair has a problem. He can't help but create the most excellent PC cases known to man. This time round he set his sights on putting together a SupCom-themed box.

Mac OS virtualisation, Part 3
Running a Mac and the whole 'single' OS thing getting you down. Jake Carroll has the solution in the last chapter of this three-part tutorial.

Floppy-less flashing in Linux
Need to flash your BIOS, but run Linux and your floppy drive is AWOL? Leigh Dyer definitely has a few ideas up his sleeve, along with a tattoo of a cat (not his) and two fingers of scotch (also not his).

Issue: 73
February, 2007
Cover feature: 101 ways to hack your PC
Your own, super-powered guide to getting the most from your PC experience. Atomic’s greatest minds came together and out of it came 101 excellent tweaks, tips and hints.


The last Sound Blaster?
Ashton Mills wanted to know if buying a Creative sound card is worthwhile in this age of decent onboard sound. CPU tests, quality benchmarks – the lot for those interested. Which should be you.

PLUS: 18 gaming headphones tested; in-depth tech preview of Assassin's Creed; hybrid hard drives; mega blowhole mod; part two of our Mac virtualisation tutorial; 13 reviews of the latest high-end PC parts and more!