The 2018 Australian PC Awards - The Winners

Best CPU company

AMD or Intel? Team blue or team red? The answer to that question could come down to whether you want power or value for money, more cores or a faster clock speed?

Presented by Samsung

Winner: Intel

The current market leader, Intel is a global superpower in the world of technology. Its CPUs are used in more PCs than any other and its range spans low-power budget products through to high performance parts.

Finalists

AMD

Since its founding in 1969, AMD has aggressively pursued market share in both consumer and enterprise, with a range of CPUs that has grown substantially with last year’s Ryzen and Threadripper products.

Best Value CPU

Winner: Intel Core i5-8400 

The i5-8400 is a 6-core design with a turbo boost up to 4.0GHz. This makes it a very compelling budget gaming CPU option.

Finalists

AMD Ryzen 5 1500X

The 1500X is a terrific value quad core CPU with a decent clock speed making it a good all-rounder across a range of workloads.

AMD Ryzen 5 1600

The Ryzen 5 1600 brings 6c/12t to a price point that was unfathomable a year ago. Performance is competitive plus there’s the bonus inclusion of a very competent cooler.

Intel Core i3-8100

The quad core i3-8100 is amazing value, essentially replacing the previous generation i5 models and halving the price at the same time. That’s got to be commended.

Best Performance CPU

Winner: Intel Core i9-7960X 

Many users probably don’t need a 7960X, but they surely do want one. 16 cores eats through content creation applications with ease, while it’s competent with lightly threaded loads too.

Finalists

AMD ThreadRipper 1950x

Threadripper is aptly named. If you’re using the appropriate software or heavily multitasking, the 1950X combined with the feature packed X399 platform is simply incredible. 

Intel Core i7-8700K

Finally we have six cores on the mainstream Intel platform. With its aggressive turbo modes and increased core count, the 8700K offers excellent performance for work or play.

AMD Ryzen 7 1700X

AMD came roaring back with Ryzen. The 1700X boasts 8 cores and is perfect for content creators and multitasking. It’s no slouch in single threaded workloads either.