dj26792

awesome I won't be able to buy any parts straight away, but I think that last build or something very similar will be what I end up getting, unless someone else comes along with radically different advice and causes me to doubt everything

Is there a reason for the two 1TB hard drives rather than a single larger one? I would have assumed it was cheaper to get one?

Thats probably great for gaming but the uni computers have 8GB of RAM and it just isn't enough for CAD, ideally this system would have 32GB, but I can't afford that, similarly while I'm no expert I know that CAD and in particular FEA and CFD make really good use of threading, so if I can squeeze in an i7 for the hyper threading that's a lot better, particularly when a single CFD analysis can run all night.

Taking those suggestions into consideration is this a better build? http://au.pcpartpicker.com/user/dj26792/saved/cLP7YJ and in regards to over-clocking I don't really know, I will almost definitely over clock it to some extent, either now or in 6 months, but probably not to any great extreme more for the joy of learning how to do it than for any other reason.

Hi I'm an Australian looking to build my first PC my budget is around $2000 AUD, give or take a little (my parents are buying me some/most of the components as a christmas present, but aren't willing to spend too much). The computer is going to be used almost equally for gaming and CAD work, including FEA and CFD analysis with occasional rendering work as well, so I performance is a pretty high priority. I'm also quite paranoid about heat problems because my current computer is a laptop that burns my legs at idle and its been nothing but trouble, so I'd like to go a little overboard with cooling, this also gives me a little headroom if overclocking comes up which is something I'd like to experiment with, but probably won't happen straight away. I'll need to buy a whole set of peripherals, mouse, keyboard and monitor, I'm looking for a 27 inch 1080p monitor, and the mouse and keyboard I don't really know what I want, except for a numpad on the keyboard. I'll probably only buy one monitor now, but ideally in the future I'll be running 2 or 3. I'm upgrading largely because the laptop I currently is use is underpowered and also 4 years old and starting to develop numerous problems aside from its long running issue of running hot enough to fry an egg. I put together a list of parts, but I only have a really vague idea of what I'm actually getting. http://au.pcpartpicker.com/p/JkYBxr Its worth noting that when I looked up prices for those components on Amazon I found that I could get them all except the motherboard for $1600 AUD + postage and I'm hoping to purchase during sales for either black Friday from the US or boxing day sales here in Australia. I'm also not really sure of the case I basically picked it cause it looked like it had what I needed and was cheap and then looked at pictures, if there's a better and better looking case for a similar price I'm open to suggestions. On a related but separate note I'm also looking for a good budget laptop as well, something for around $400-$600 give or take a little, that just needs to do basic word-processing and internet browsing, although if it can handle Auto-CAD well enough to view files that's a plus, but I won't hold my breath for that.