So I've put a bit of money aside and am finally willing to take the plunge into non-retro PC gaming. I have never built one before and was hoping you guys can help me get on the right track, it's worth mentioning that I'm willing to make it myself (providing I have all the pieces of course) as it's obviously cheaper than buying a pre-built gaming PC. The budget is a nice and tidy £1000 (approx $1565 according to Google) and I will also need a Monitor with that money.

If you were going to ask "What kind of games do you plan on playing?" my answer would be "The latest and greatest my friend".

Any advice is appreciated. Maybe ask yourself what you would buy in my situation?

@IAmNotBatman:

Well you're coming in at a pretty good time, Ivy bridge just launched and the prices are right around where the sandy bridge are still sitting. And just like the previous gen I would go with the unlocked i5 3570K. Great speed great price, no real need for the 8 cores on the i7.

For motherboard, i would suggest an ASRock. I'M a little biased towards them, but that's just because mine has worked so incredibly well. I would go with either their extreme4 or extreme6 models for Ivy Bridge. The difference being about $40 in price, with the extreme6 having better heatsinks on the MoBo and better voltage regulators if you decide to get into heavy overclocking.

For video cards I would stick with a GTX 570 or a 560 Ti. The 600's are still a little too much and the mid range cards in that line might not be out for a few months yet. I admit i don't know much about AMD cards and don't follow too much of their progression, but I'm sure you can find a chart somewhere that would show the equivalent AMD card if you're partial to them. In terms of exact models, those are just two that I know work really well heat sink wise, If you decide to go with EVGA or another manufacturer its up to you.

That should put you off to a pretty good start.

@Cronus42: I remember Will Smith on the Tested podcast a few months ago mentioning waiting a little while to build a PC and saying something about Ivy Bridge, makes a lot more sense now you say that. I was previously looking around about the parts you've recommended, so am glad that I'm not far off understanding what would be good choices. A bit unsure about what I need to worry about when it comes to things like Water Cooling or Power Supply e.g. what would be the difference between buying a 650W and 750W and if certain parts could easily start to overheat if I'm not careful. Sorry you're dealing with a real novice here and thanks for the help.

• Intel Core i5 3570K $245.00
• Corsair HX-750 Power Supply $189.00
• Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB WD1002FAEX $135.00
• Lite-On IHAS324 24x DVDRW $25.00
• Fractal Design Define R3 Black USB 3.0 $145.00
• Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit with SP1 OEM $99.00
• ASUS VS239H 23in Widescreen e-IPS LED Monitor $185.00
• Corsair Vengeance CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 $69.00
• Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H Motherboard $199.00
• Inno3D GeForce GTX 570 1280MB $299.00

The Prices are pulled from an AUS retailer but it would seem to fall around your current price range, see if you can source the same parts from somewhere in the UK. It's a shame you need a monitor, otherwise you could get a GTX 670. If your not going to overclock you will require no additional 3rd party cooling, the stock cooler will be perfectly fine. The power supply here will give you some head room should you change out for a more power hungry card (or 2) down the track, never cheap out on a PSU.

I wouldn't bother. I would have said yes around 12 years ago.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/ This is where you should buy things. Mixed in with Amazon.