As we head into the season of goodwill, peace on earth, and drunken office parties, we ask you to spare a thought for Richard Swinburne, our tireless motherboard and CPU expert who's spent almost all of November slaving over hot motherboards to bring you some of the very best Intel Core i7 coverage.

While the jury might still be out on Intel's new architecture in regards to real-world gaming performance, it's clear that Nehalem is a very capable processor. However, the additional motherboard and memory costs will place it far out of the budgets of many, especially when there are still fantastic processors such as the Q6600 or E8400 available on much more wallet friendly platforms.

As well as the full launch of Intel's new processors and X58 motherboards, November has also seen the worrying trend of hardware price rises continue, especially in the affordable end of the market. In the space of a month many CPUs and motherboards have increased in price by more than ?10 as the pound continues its weak run against the dollar.

Although, whether you agree with it or not as a wise financial move for the country, the VAT reduction of 2.5 percent applied from today will go some way to helping, especially if you're considering building a whole new PC or particularly expensive upgrade.