Holding tempo with the tech and developments of the PC world is our job. We do it as a result of we love these items, and since we love sharing what we study with you. So, the pleasure of gathering with our colleagues, locked away in a room with ‘don’t disturb’ taped to the door for 2 days to debate the 12 months that’s been and decide what shone the brightest is just about the spotlight of our tech 12 months.
Staff TechRadar gathered up our associates from APC, PC Gamer and PC PowerPlay for this process, as we all the time do. We mentioned each little bit of tech and gear we’d seen in 2024, not all the time agreeing at first, however well-reasoned debate led us to being fairly certain that the winners right here actually are deserving.
Throughout 25 classes masking all the pieces vital inside a PC, and what connects to it, we got here up with 173 finalists and, from that, 25 winners. Right here they’re, the cream of the crop for the 12 months, the finest we reckon there is. Perhaps you already personal one thing we preferred right here, and maybe you’re on the lookout for one thing new – both method we hope this listing is inspirational and helpful.
Congratulations to all the people behind the scenes at all the firms coated right here. You’re doing an incredible job – stick with it!
What are the Australian PC Awards?
Our awards cowl all the foremost classes that have an effect on a PC, in addition to our particular awards:
Excellence Award: Offered to the particular person, product or expertise that superior the PC extra than some other in 2024.
Gold Award: For the finest general firm working in the PC house for 2024. This listing contains each certainly one of the finalists throughout all the different classes – and has been rigorously thought-about by our skilled panel of judges.
And naturally there should be stability with all issues, which leads us to this 12 months’s Epic Fail Award. Might the most dismal failure win!
Australian PC Awards Winners 2025
The 12 months in assessment: Motherboards
After a giant 2023, motherboard producers spent 2024 increasing their choices for AMD Zen 5 and Intel’s 14th-gen CPUs. On 24 October, the much-anticipated Intel Arrow Lake (Core Extremely Sequence 2) launched, together with an all-new chipset and socket. Whereas the Intel CPUs themselves have been a disappointment, the Z890 chipset launched just a few thrilling upgrades, like elevated RAM velocity and further PCIe 5.0 lanes.
The benefits of upgrading to a brand new motherboard have been considerably tempered by the new LGA 1851 socket and the lack of a promise that it might stay appropriate with future CPUs. On the plus aspect, most current LGA 1700 coolers nonetheless match. Regardless of this, motherboard producers stepped up, with a spread of wonderful Z890 boards out there at launch – even when not many individuals needed to improve.
We additionally noticed many producers launch actually ultra-high-end fashions, in addition to some fascinating improvements, like back-connected motherboards. Even the inexpensive boards acquired additional consideration, with loads of finances fashions providing specs that compete effectively in the decrease mid-range.
Finest Motherboard Maker
Extremely Counseled
All Finalists
Finest Worth Motherboard
Extremely Counseled
All Finalists
Finest Premium Motherboard
Extremely Counseled
All Finalists
The 12 months in assessment: GPUs
2024 was a really quiet 12 months, with the two foremost gamers not launching a brand new graphics structure we’re doomed to refreshes and minor updates. And that’s what we obtained from Nvidia in the type of the RTX 4000 Tremendous sequence refresh. The 4080 Tremendous didn’t actually enhance efficiency however did a minimum of assist pricing for the then very overpriced half it outdated. With the 4070 / Ti Supers barely nudging the bar greater, it made the refresh really feel a little bit ho-hum.
AMD didn’t do a lot better with simply the RX 7600 XT and RX 7900 GRE launching. The GRE a minimum of made clients assume with its fairly compelling price-to-performance ratio.
As an alternative, it was Intel that breathed recent air into the ecosystem at the finish of the 12 months with the launch of its Battlemage structure in the Arc B580. Providing stable 1440p efficiency and excellent pricing it was rapidly heralded as the entry degree GPU saviour we’ve been ready for. Although its driver overhead flaws and lack of availability quickly marred its repute and in the end made our selection for winner harder than it in any other case would have.
Finest Graphics Card Maker
Extremely Counseled
All Finalists
Finest Graphics Card
Extremely Counseled
All Finalists
The 12 months in assessment: CPUs
It was a busy 12 months for brand new CPUs. We had a really hyped-up launch for Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite which got here out swinging providing unprecedented ranges of battery life, however in the end, driver help and incompatibilities quickly wore away all the good press they recieved. AMD had a giant fizzle of a second with its Ryzen 9000 sequence desktop chips that for the common Joe didn’t provide rather more than the 7000 sequence. To not be outdone in the disappointment division, Intel launched its Core Extremely 200 sequence, certainly one of the few the place there’s been efficiency regressions in comparison with earlier choices!
Intel did better with its Arrow Lake laptop computer sequence launch providing good efficiency, better iGPU uplifts and nice battery life, although AMD’s new APU’s tended to impress a tad extra general.
Apple, in fact, continued to iterate with the new M4 sequence although it looks as if Apple’s builders are operating out of steam in comparison with everybody else.
The good points over earlier generations this 12 months appeared very small and reasonably disappointing on the entire, with big battery life and energy utilization enhancements seeming to be the foremost title of the recreation this 12 months.
Finest worth CPU
Extremely Counseled
All Finalists
Finest Mid-range CPU
Extremely Counseled
All Finalists
Finest Premium CPU
Extremely Counseled
All Finalists
The 12 months in assessment: Storage
Holding your information secure whereas with the ability to entry it rapidly is the beat that drums steadily onwards. Regardless of having been out there for a few years now, the fast new PCIe 5.0 normal nonetheless lags behind PCIe 4.0 in recognition. The newer gen 5 drives are nonetheless costly by comparability, warmth stays a difficulty – resulting in typically impractically giant warmth sinks and even energetic cooling – and for most individuals PCIe 4 is a lot quick sufficient. Serving to hold gen 4 SSDs price-competitive is the ever-growing marketplace for PlayStation 5 user-upgraded SSDs.
Arduous drives nonetheless exist, which is about all we are able to say about them. In mid-2024 Seagate debuted a 24TB drive, which is supposed for enterprise and NAS use. Talking of NAS – for the second 12 months operating these awards don’t embody a NAS class. As soon as upon a time we’d see a number of new shopper NAS merchandise annually, however the scene is desolate now, which we interpret as earlier NAS fashions capable of do the house job completely adequately, and a shift in focus to enterprise for the large gamers like Synology and QNAP.
Finest Inside Storage Maker
Extremely Counseled
All Finalists
Finest Exterior Storage Maker
Extremely Counseled
All Finalists
The 12 months in assessment: Methods
After a gradual begin, 2024 turned out to be an thrilling 12 months for laptops, with a spread of latest CPUs and product redesigns that felt genuinely recent and modern. The Snapdragon X Elite impressed with its efficiency however struggled to promote, whereas the newest Ryzen 9 AI chips have been delightfully highly effective however tended to run scorching in slim laptops. In a contented shock, Intel’s Lunar Lake cellular CPUs discovered their method into a few of our favorite laptops of the 12 months.
We noticed pleasant 120Hz OLED shows on even very inexpensive machines, USB4 and Thunderbolt are normal fare, however upgradeable RAM is more and more uncommon. Maybe feeling the strain, Apple lastly bid farewell to 8GB of RAM, making 16GB the default for MacBooks – and, maybe most surprisingly, they didn’t increase costs. In the meantime, Microsoft constructed some nice laptops and 2-in-1s, however its heavy-handed push for Copilot+ was painful to observe.
Gaming laptops noticed few {hardware} adjustments over 2024, that includes the similar GPUs and barely upgraded CPUs, however impressed because of improved shows, refined cooling programs and nice worth from the mid-range 4060 fashions. On the desktop entrance, programs confronted challenges from fluctuating GPU costs, and many homeowners of Thirteenth- and 14th-gen Intel CPUs discovered themselves regretting not choosing AMD. Mini desktop PCs gained recognition, largely because of AMD’s CPUs – and even Apple joined the enjoyable with the M4-equipped Mac Mini.
Finest Worth Laptop computer or 2-in-1
Extremely Counseled
All Finalists
Finest Premium Laptop computer or 2-in-1
Extremely Counseled
All Finalists
Finest Gaming Laptop computer
Extremely Counseled
All Finalists
Finest Desktop PC Maker & Reseller
Extremely Counseled
All Finalists
The 12 months in assessment: Parts and Peripherals
This is by far the largest class in these Awards, and understandably so. By way of the 12 months we noticed a resurgence in the recognition of CPU air coolers, pushed by a number of new coolers that come extraordinarily near liquid AIO coolers at a fraction of the worth – and are a lot much less of a fiddle to put in.
Displays proceed to be a hotbed of innovation, with QD OLED main the method. Selection in display screen dimension and side ratio continues to develop. Ultrawide gaming screens fill the market now, with 49in screens showing from most producers.
Keyboards proceed to supply extra, for more cash, with super-premium fashions now commonly exceeding AU$500, and DIY equipment boards additionally gaining floor.
Case developments are firmly shifting in the direction of the ‘aquarium’ fashion, which makes use of a glass entrance panel, a design popularised by Hyte and picked up on by nearly each different case maker. Wooden is additionally the new cool look, and we’re good with that.
Wi-Fi 7 continues to choose up steam, although pricing is nonetheless holding routers out of attain for a lot of properties. Motherboard help for Wi-Fi 7 is now frequent, so we hope that may assist the drive in the direction of extra Wi-Fi routers at decrease costs.
Finest Reminiscence Maker
Extremely Counseled
All Finalists
Finest Cooling Product
Extremely Counseled
All Finalists
Finest Monitor
Extremely Counseled
All Finalists
Finest Keyboard
Extremely Counseled
All Finalists
Finest Mouse
All Finalists
Finest Gaming Headset
Extremely Counseled
All Finalists
Finest PC Case
Extremely Counseled
All Finalists
Finest Router
Extremely Counseled
All Finalists
Excellence Award
For the particular person, product or expertise that superior the PC extra than some other, in 2024.
Extremely Counseled
All Finalists
Gold Award
The corporate that impressed us the most, general, in 2024.
All Finalists
Epic Fail Award
The most important loser of 2024.
Extremely Counseled
All Finalists
Final 12 months’s winners
See who gained final 12 months proper right here!
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