Over the next few months you’re going to see some big changes on PC Pro.

2011 benchmarks

In issue 200 of the magazine (on sale mid-April), we’re going to be unveiling our 2011 benchmarks suite. Written in-house using real-world applications such as Office 2010 and Photoshop CS5, the PC Pro benchmarks will deliver the most accurate measurement of PC performance to date, testing overall system responsiveness as well as typical desktop tasks and demanding multi-core workloads.

That will be graphically illustrated in issue 200’s CPU megatest, in which we’ll be testing every mainstream desktop CPU from both Intel and AMD to see which really offers the best performance for your money. We’ll explain more about how our new benchmarks work in the coming weeks.

New-look magazine

In the next few months, you’ll also see a new-look PC Pro magazine on the newsagents’ shelves or dropping through your letterbox (find out how to subscribe here). We’re fundamentally redesigning the magazine, whilst still delivering more features, more reviews and more real-world expert advice than any other title.

We’ll share more of our redesign plans with you in the coming weeks and months, but you can look forward to:

* A revamped A List that makes it easier than ever to find our recommended products

* More detailed product photography, analysis and performance scores in reviews

* Platinum Labs – comprehensive group tests of the best kit money can buy

* Real-world advice from those looking to pursue a career in IT

These are only a small fraction of the changes and new features we’re planning for the new-look PC Pro. Read Tim Danton’s column in this month’s magazine to find out how you give your feedback on the planned changes.

A new editor

A more immediate change is that, as of today, I will be succeeding Tim Danton as editor of PC Pro.

Tim’s left me with an enviable legacy: the biggest, most-read computing monthly in the country; a website with more than a million unique users every month; and, crucially, the most talented and experienced team of staff and contributors of any IT publication in the country.

Tim’s not going far: he’s taking over as editorial director of Dennis Publishing’s tech division. You’ll still hear his voice on the PC Pro podcast and read his fine words on the PC Pro blogs.

I’m sure you’ll join me in wishing him well (a man who drinks that much black coffee each day needs all the well-wishers he can get) in his new post, and I look forward to what’s going to be a momentous few months for PC Pro.

Barry Collins – Editor

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2011/02/24 ... at-pc-pro/

The comments are interesting

Reading that has made me realise I'll probably never spend/take enough of an interest in new hardware to justify buying the mag ever again (especially since iGoogle gives me easy to read tech headlines and articles)

Shame there isn't a CD free issue to reduce the price.
Mind you, even if there was, I'm sure airport shops (where I buy the mag, if I buy it) would still stock the expensive DVD version like they do now.

And if you did you'd end up moving on to Custom PC I imagine. Twas what happened to me, I used to pick up PC Pro when I new absolutely nothing about PCs, now it's Custom PC for me now that I know relatively little about PCs.

Mind you it looks like it's a good mag for those interested in software, not that I'd be a good judge of that TBH.

I packed in my sub to PC Pro last year (I've bought it since issue 1) - It's a good mag, but over the last few years it has gotten thinner and thinner, and that isn't because there are fewer advert in there. For me it just lost some of it's value; enough to justify cancelling it. I still visit the site, because I like their reviews.

I mostly only look at the website, but Barry Collins rather puts me off buying even more now.

TBH I cancelled my subscription after I realised that I used to read Jon Honeyball's column and then not much else.

I stopped buying when they b*ggered the DUMP.

Innit.

Yeah... solidarity, Brian.