hello, Im new to pc gaming and looking for advice on choosing the best parts to build one that performs well. My budget is around $1000-1200 for the pc.
Overclockable Intel Cpu with a solid motherboard to support it. Good price on the Ram right now, you get 1866mhz CAS 9 Ram cheaper than ddr3 1600(@cas 9 or less). Standard 1tb HDD and optical drive, with Win7 as your OS. I'm using Win8.1, and I don't see any reason not to suggest it, but it is 13 dollars more so it's up to you.
I didn't put an SSD into this build, so you could afford the nVidia 770 Gpu. You could drop down and get the 760, then you could afford the Samsung 840 Evo 250gb SSD. The SSD will make your system load faster, such as loading between zones, but it doesn't give you better performance in-game.
One of the nicest cases out there, sub-100 dollars, period. I went with a 620w Psu simply because I didn't like the prices on the higher wattage units, but if you think you'll want to SLI in the future, you'll want at least a 750w or preferably 850w Psu to complement your system. Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo will cool the cpu for a mild to medium overclock, and is a great value.