Looking for Help to building a PC

[Vasterion]

Hi guys, I'm sort of new to PC Gaming, and as such, have an old Steam Powered thing about 8 years old. Anyway, I'm looking to upgrade, so I can play the likes of upcoming games to their full capacity (Ranging from Dragon Age, to the upcoming Shogun 2).

What sort of a bench mark am I looking? And what sort of a price range am I looking at?

I live in the UK, and know next-to-nothing about building computers. So, what I'm looking for is something which can play said games, Maxed settings, possible 24" 1920 1080p Screen.

I have Windows 7 Ultimate, and 2010 Student.

I'm looking around this site at the minute, but unless anyone knows any other (Delivers to UK) maker or whatever they're called, I'd gladly listen (bear in mind, I know little about computers, so can't make it myself, nor would I know if I'm being cheated or not, so direct order from a Manufacturer would be better.

One thing I'm not sure about - it says that for Hard Drives, that one make,a "Corsair 120GB SSD" costs £120 more than a "2TB SATA". Why? Isn't 2TB larger than 120GB? Is one faster than the other or something? And is it worth getting one for say gaming, and a second for holding work on? (i.e have PowerDVD on the fast one, and video files on the Larger one? Or is the difference negligible?

Sorry if this is a bit open ended. I have about £1500 to spend, maybe a bit more if I can sell the car. I'll try and offer a bit more help if I can.

[iPwntUrMum]

Sorry, I'm not very learned in the skill of computer picking out, I'll leave that to some of the more seasoned Basement vets.

As for the hard drive situation, the Corsair is an SSD, or a solid state drive. The 2tb SATA is your traditional hard drive, with a spinning disk inside it. The SSD will speed up boot times, game loading times, and some other situations (such as large file transfers), however as you can tell they are so expensive nowadays that they're basically just a luxury to own one, IMHO. You don't need it, go with the 2TB SATA and save yourself a hundred quid

[Sir Shfvingle]

So if you're looking to upgrade, are you going to hire someone to put it together? If you know nothing and aren't willing to spend a significant amount of time learning, I'd just buy a new one. However, with knowledge about PC building, you can save yourself a bunch of money by putting one together yourself. Time is what it comes to. If you want knowledge though, this is where it's at. Hang out here and you'll know exactly what you need in no time. The big guns should be arriving momentarily...

[Nanny de Bodemloze]

^^ keep waiting for those big guns...I'm not them for sure ...

As Sir S said, if you have the time, do it yourself (even if its your first time). Not only will you save money, you'll learn alot in the process. If you are building a computer from scratch, keep your old one intact in the same room, hooked up to the internet. There are so many articles and videos that will, very simply, walk you through everything you'll need to do. But I find a running 2nd computer is really helpful during the process in case I run into any snags.

[mrcrusty]

Wait a few days for a recommendation list. Intel Sandy Bridge processors have yet to be sold and priced in online PC stores in the UK.

[Fenon]

If you want to build your own you could get one like I'm planning to get, it's in the same price range as you were thinking of spending (Link to the topic below). I'm getting it from http://www.overclockers.co.uk/ they do good prebuilt overclocked systems as well, and their components are quite cheap.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=415228