After 2 months of researching and after all the wonderful help everyone on here have given me, I present to you....my build! I just purchased it on NewEgg and I've been double checking my order for the past half hour making sure I didn't screw it up
CPU: Intel i7 2600k
MOBO: Asus P8Z68-V Pro/Gen 3
RAM: 16GB (4x4) 1600 DDR3 Corsair Vengeance (low profile heat sinks)
PSU: Corsair Professional Series HX750w
HDD 1: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 32MB
HDD 2: Western DIgital Caviar Black 1TB 32MB
SSD: Intel 510 120GB
COOLER: Cooler Master V6 GT
OPTICAL: ASUS CD/DVD RW
CASE: NZXT Phantom 410
OS: Windows 7 Professional 64 bit
Total on NewEgg: $1,297.39 (after rebates)
This will be my first build for a strong DAW / video editing system. I do still need to pick up a graphics card (GTX 550/560ti) in the future, but no rush since I"m still noobing out with video editing. If the AVCHD editing is painfully slow from the start, I will immediately grab one! Again thank you everyone who helped me through this long tedious process! Let me know what you guys think!
Concur, nice. However, if you're gonna go straight to video stuff, I suggest just sink the graphics card now. 16GB is more than ample memory but won't always replace the memory of a good devoted gpu.