Steel is great and either the LHT or CrossCheck would be a great all around type bike.

Generally, it is cheaper to buy a complete bike. Jenson USA sells Surly bikes. The CrossCheck frameset (frame+fork) runs $400, while a complete bike is $930. It would be hard to buy a new groupo+wheels+headset for $500. The advantage to building the bike up is that you get to get everything just the way you want it. Since you're a newbie, though, you probably don't really have an idea of what you want.