The last year has been a massive one for PC gaming and home computing and we can finally now get 20/20 hindsight vision for which products of 2020 and the start of 2021 were the absolute best in their field.
The Australian PC Awards has finally kicked off, with livestreams airing at 7:30pm (AEST) on the 23rd, 24th and the 25th of June.
Tune in to the APCA 2021 livestreams for a chance to win some excellent prizes, or watch the post-show video for some great debate on the state of PC components.
The Australian PC Awards is presented by computing experts from TechRadar, APC, TechLife, PC Gamer, PC PowerPlay and T3. Representing a broad collection of computing veterans from some of Australia’s best PC publications, there’s no better way to get a complete snapshot of the highs and lows of personal computers in 2020/21.
Anyone here purely for the results of the 2021 Australian PC Awards, read on. Below is the final list of products that beat all the competition in their field to take out an APCA 2021 best product award.
Whether you’re looking to build the best value rig around, or you simply want to tick off any components you might already have in your current build, all of the following products are the best in the business.
Winners lists are updated following their awards ceremony livestream, so set a reminder to check back in to see the other winners if you haven’t already.
Motherboards
Best Motherboard Maker 2021
Asus
Great BIOSes and a consistently good physical layout across the range. Asus has proven to their motherboard owners time and time again that they are both reliable and capable of the highest performance.
Best Value Motherboard 2021
Asrock A520M-ITX/AC
The perfect partner for one of AMD’s lower-priced CPUs (or APUs), this $150 board offers a great feature set for the price and even has AC Wi-Fi.
• Read the full PC Gamer review
Highly Commended
Best Premium Motherboard 2021
Gigabyte Z590 Aorus Master
Mega VRM and huge heatsinks that give lots of surface area for outstanding cooling, great quality components and even 10G LAN, which is unheard of at this pricepoint.
• Read the full Tom’s Hardware review
Highly Commended
Asus Crosshair VIII Dark Hero X570
The best AM4 motherboard we’ve yet tested, we’re so enamoured with it that it’s become our AMD testbed. Fantastic memory support, supporting frequencies that other boards just don’t. Insane amount of USB ports. Does have a couple of weaknesses, but they’re acceptable trade-offs.
• Read the full PC Gamer review
Graphics Cards
Best Graphics Card Maker 2021
MSI
Consistently first-rate coolers from top to bottom across the whole range, and often priced a bit cheaper than other brands.
Highly Commended
Nvidia
30-Series features genuine engineering innovation and reasonable cooling for a reference card.
Best Value Graphics Card 2021
MSI RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X Trio
A mid range card with a triple-fan flagship design. One of the quietest gaming cards you’ll find and punches well above it’s weight.
• Read the full PC Gamer review
Highly Commended
Highly Commended
Best Premium Graphics Card 2021
Highly Commended