Australian PC Awards 2021 winners: The best of the best in PC

Australian PC Awards 2021
(Image credit: Future)

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 are complete, with live streaming reveals airing across three nights on June 23, 24 and 25, 2021. 

If you missed them on the nights, you can still tune in to the APCA 2021 episodes to see the live unveilings, some for great debate on the state of PC components... and a chance to win some excellent prizes!

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.

Motherboards

APCA 2021 MoBo

(Image credit: Future)

Best Motherboard Maker 2021

Asus
Best Motherboard M...

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
Best Value Motherb...

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

MSI MAG Z490 Tomahawk

MSI MAG Z490 Tomahawk
A great choice for a user looking to build a powerful system without spending the big bucks.

Read the full AnandTech review

Best Premium Motherboard 2021

Gigabyte Z590 Aorus Master
Best Premium Mothe...

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

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

APCA GPU 2021

(Image credit: Future)

Best Graphics Card Maker 2021

MSI
Best Graphics Card...

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

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
Best Value Graphic...

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

Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3060 Vision OC

Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3060 Vision OC
The gorgeous Gigabyte 3060 Vision OC is a great choice for gaming or creating. 

Highly Commended

PowerColor Radeon RX 6700 XT Hellhound

PowerColor Radeon RX 6700 XT Hellhound
Why spend more when you can get a great performing and cool running option for less.

Read Tom's Hardware's coverage

Best Premium Graphics Card 2021

Asus ROG Strix RTX 3080 O10G Gaming
Best Premium Graph...

Asus ROG Strix RTX 3080 O10G Gaming
A quiet, cool, powerful and feature loaded card. It's got the lot.

Highly Commended

MSI GeForce RTX 3080 Suprim

MSI GeForce RTX 3080 Suprim
A powerhouse of high clocks and quality cooling to tame it.

Read TechRadar's coverage

CPU

APCA 2021 CPU

(Image credit: Future)

Best Value CPU 2021

Intel Core i5-11400F
Best Gaming Mouse ...

Intel Core i5-11400F
With impressive performance for less than half the price of a 5600X, for those on a budget, this is a slam dunk.

Highly Commended

AMD Ryzen 3 3300X

AMD Ryzen 3 3300X
It's a special little gem if you can get your hands on one.

Highly Commended

Intel Core i5-10600K

Intel Core i5-10600K
This CPU offers the performance of a flagship CPU from just a couple of years ago. 

Best Premium CPU 2021

AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
Best Premium CPU 2...

AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
A great enthusiast processor, Intel can't beat it and does everything pretty well without breaking the bank.

Highly Commended

AMD Ryzen 5 5600X

AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
For a gaming-only focus the 5600X is perfect.

Highly Commended

Intel Core i5-11600K

Intel Core i5-11600K
This powerful hexa-core CPU offers very competitive performance at this price point

Storage

APCA 2021 Storage

(Image credit: Future)

Best Internal Storage Maker 2021

Samsung
Best Internal Stor...

Samsung
An unblemished record of quality, value and choice.

Highly Commended

Adata

Adata
A smaller brand gunning to take on the premium makers.

Best External Storage Maker 2021

WD
Best External Stor...

WD
Thoughtfully engineered storage products covering every conceivable need.

Highly Commended

Seagate

Seagate
Innovative products like the Firecuda Gaming Dock demonstrate Seagate's commitment to innovation.

Best SOHO or Home NAS 2021

Synology DS1621+
Best SOHO or Home ...

Synology DS1621+
A great combination of performance, capacity, features, expandability and price point for any SMB.

Highly Commended

Synology DS920+