Need serious help on a computer.

A good starting point:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/288241-31-faqs-build-...

^+1 for the links.

As for the New Year build, I strongly advice waiting for a few weeks more to get your hands on newer tech from both Intel and AMD out in the 1st quarter of 2012.

If you live in America, go to Newegg.com to buy your parts.
If you live in Australia, go to pccasegear.com to get your stuff.

Before I can go on, could you tell me if you're going to be overclocking and the resolution of your monitor?

Otherwise, this is one tentative build, going by Newegg prices:

CPU - Intel i5 2400 $189.99
Motherboard - ASRock Extreme3Gen3 $124.99
GPU - Gigabyte 6950 $239.99
RAM - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 $46.99
Case - Coolermaster HAF 922 $89.99
HDD - Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB $69.99
PSU - Corsair CX500 V2 $59.99

Total = $821.93

OS should come out to be ~$90.

8 GB RAM isn't necessary, but it's nice to have. 4 GB is absolutely fine as well.

Don't know if you're a hardcore gamer; if you are, you'll probably want yourself some gaming mice and "gaming" keyboards from brands such as Razer. If not, the peripherals from Logitech and Microsoft are very nice as well. Any generic brand should be ok.

You can still fit an SSD in there such as the OCZ Vertex 3 60GB, which would make a nice system drive for you to install your OS on. But it's up to you, and whether you can be bothered with the hassle of installing to a separate drive.

And anyone else criticise my build as well; I haven't posted a lot of these and there are probably a few discrepancies in there somewhere.

Cheers.

That's a nice build, though I'd invest a bit more to get a 2500K, a CPU cooler and perhaps a better PSU.

God, typing with this thing is a pain.
Thanks for the link to the guide, really appreciated.
The monitor is a cheap lcd hand me down from a friend. Not sure what the res is, but I'm sure I'll want to upgrade, most likely to a touchscreen.
I'm in the US.
Yeah, I'll be doing some serious gaming, not sure if you'd call me hardcore, but I suspect the board and mouse will have to wait. I'm not sure about the overclocking, I don't know what can do what anymore, but most likely I will be considering things probably haven't changed that much for gaming.
SSD sounds like a good idea for the OS and just doing a bit looking tells me I want 8gig ram.
I really do appreciate any builds you throw my way, I can use those as an example, may also end up building one, but I also gotta catch up on what the tech means, so any links you throw my way will also be appreciated.
Thanks a lot everyone.

Change CPU to i5 2500K (may dabble in overclocking in the future)
HD6950 or GTX560Ti
Crucial M4 64Gb (minimum) SSD (for Windows/Office etc)

http://www.overclock.net/ssd/664738-how-setup-ssd-boot-...

^Details how to set up an SSD as your boot drive.

And if you're doing some serious gaming, then you'll definitely want the 6950, although you can go with the GTX 5xx cards as well. Personal preferences   A quick google search will show tons of reviews for GPUs, although the main ones you'll be looking for are either:
Radeon 6950/6970
GeForce GTX 570
All other models won't suit your needs or will be too overpowered/expensive.
Will you be crossfiring later on in life? If so, then you'll want to invest in a PSU that supplies around 750 W.

Anyhow, OC'ing with the current lineup of Sandy Bridge processors is supremely easy. To that end,go with what Finneous said and go for an i5 2500K. Even if you don't know how to do it now, once you read the guides and benefits to OC'ing, you'll definitely want to give it a go. Coolers such as the Coolermaster Hyper 212+ are cheap and effective, so I'd recommend that.

And yes, installing an SSD is one of the best things you can do for your computer. Sticking an SSD as a boot drive will *vastly* improve your boot speed, as well as the save/load times of your games. The only thing is that it has crap $/GB. A 60GB will be sweet for your needs; just install your OS and your most heavily played games on your SSD. Just be careful about where you install your programs.

And *definitely* build your own. By getting pre-builts from Dell, HP etc. you've agreed to pay high premiums on parts that can be bought for a much cheaper price elsewhere. You get more value for money by buying and building your own.

Wow, seems like I hit the jackpot forum on the first try. The 2 links you guys gave me has some awesome info, especially to the one located here.
Does anyone else agree with calguyhunk that I should wait a bit into 1st quarter for my pc? I'm going with majority opinion on this one, though I'm not sure how much it will affect me considing I have 1k and probably won't be able to afford the new stuff. Is it because of price drop in the older parts?

It depends on your needs. Do you need a new rig right now?

IMO, prices for new components will be expensive at first. As the market settles, older components will come down in price.

With your budget of 1K, you can stretch your budget but may have to wait till Q2.

Ivy Bridge will come out some time during March 2012, according to Wiki  

IB will be compatible with any Z68 mobo. If you're really impatient, get the stuff now and if you see a need to get IB or just really curious, then just swap your 2500K out for an IB. You'll have to google around for the improvements of IB over the current SB lineup.

Ultimately, it's your choice.

It's not just the IB. The new HD 7000 series GPU's (PCIe 3.0) will be due by then as well.

@ OP. You don't really need to wait. The stuff you can get now for 1K will be plenty good for some time to come. But if you do indeed choose to wait, your rig might just be a little bit more future ready (nothing's really future proof)  

Everyone, I really appreciate the help and advice. I have done quite a bit of research, starting with what you gave me, and have decided to wait until Ivy Bridge gets released. Besides, that will give me more time to save.
I was checking out some magazines and ran across CPU and there is a free 1yr subscription deal, no credit card, just register with the site. Here's the link if you are interested.

www.computerpoweruser.com/registration/register.aspx