Behold the Atomic Reader Awards!

Welcome to the inaugural Annual Atomic Reader Awards!, in association with AMD.

Awards are something fantastic, and something special. Everyone likes receiving

Welcome to the inaugural Annual Atomic Reader Awards!, in association with AMD.

Awards are something fantastic, and something special. Everyone likes receiving them, unless, of course, you're a grumpy dwarven hermit from Norway.

If you fall into this category, well, go home. However, if you're not a troubled Norwegian dwarf, please accept our offer to instead give some awards out. Trust us, it'll give you a funny, warm sensation – not unlike being a subscriber.

At Atomic HQ we gathered, held hands and entered a deep meditative trance. With a scribe on hand to note the tongue-speakage babbling that was uttered over the hours, which seemed like minutes to us, a short list of supreme computerage emerged.

All the best bits of gear over the last year, as well as the games that said gear was used to run was then organised into logical categories for you to vote for.

The Atomic Reader Awards are the most prestigious awards in the computer industry. And we can say that before they've even been held! Because the voting is being done by Atomicans, there is a certainty that the massed expertness of the community will point the finger at only the stuff that's really actually the best. Not some half-arsed, 'yeah, that seems really good' best, no, this best is the bestest best that rules the rest.
So there.

We've divided the categories into what seems logical. To us, it is logical that we run the voting on video card and motherboard chipsets, instead of individual and nearly identical products. To us it is also logical that we list manufacturers of monitors, instead of individual models, most of which you'll likely have had no experience with.

All the sickest, wickedest bits of kit we know of will go against one another – and all you need to do is vote for them. You get to pick the products of 2002 – the Atomic Reader Awards – right here on the Atomic Website. You'll need to click quick, because the cut off date for votes is the 22nd of November.

Rather than indignify the results online, we're going to publish the finalists in their own special booklet, available on the cover of the January issue of Atomic.

Start screaming with joy – now. We all are.

Feel privileged – you have every right to be. Let your opinion be known, for there is worthiness to bestow.