Ivy-Bridge, "Tier 2", Multi-Tasking, Gaming-Ready Rig

By "Tier 2", I mean to say that I am willing to drop close to top dollar for the most current parts, but I'm not looking to get the top of the line for unnecessary and minimal performance boosts.
Also, this will be my first time building a system from scratch. While I do have ample experience working with components, I am still a bit apprehensive on doing the whole thing, so any and all criticism is welcome, Thank you!

Approximate Purchase Date: Mid-June/July.

Budget Range: $1000-$1500

System Usage from Most to Least Important:
Program Editors/compilers, Office Suite Programs, Web, will be dual booting with Win 7 and Ubuntu, potentially gaming in the future (Guild Wars 2 or equivalent).

Parts Not Required:
Monitor, Mouse, Keyboard, Speakers, Storage HDD (will be buying an SSD to boot OS), Battery Backup Unit, PSU (link below)

CORSAIR Professional Series Gold AX850 (CMPSU-850AX) 850W ATX12V
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Country: USA

Parts Preferences:
Intel i7 Ivy Bridge CPU, ASUS Mobo, Nvidia GPU, Full Tower Case

Overclocking: No

SLI or Crossfire:
Potentially SLI in the future if needed.

Additional Comments:
So I realize for what I'll be using it for it'll be a bit overkill, but I want to have the potential for if/when I decide to game and want to get another GPU for SLI. I feel I have my CPU and Mobo picked out, from the little bit of researching I did. They are linked below, any comments on my selection would be greatly appreciated.

Intel Core i7-3770 Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

ASUS SABERTOOTH Z77 LGA 1155 Intel Z77
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

My Biggest Questions:

GPU:
I've always been behind the curve on knowing GPU specs, so any suggestions for what I should be looking at would be great. I'd like to keep it under $350 as I won't be gaming once I get the system built. That being said, which card has the best potential for SLI down the road? I would like to run an Nvidia card, but am open to ATI options. Also, what do I need to consider in compatibility with the Mobo/CPU?

Liquid Cooling:
This is something I've never even google'd (which I will do as soon as I post just to get a basic understanding). I would really appreciate someone's experienced advice on this as I am pretty nervous to install something so critical (dangerous?) as running water inside my computer!!

SSD:
OCZ Vertex 4 VTX4-25SAT3-128G
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

RAM:
I think I'd like to install 2 x 4Gb sticks of DDR3 to start, and then double that if/when I add another video card. I can't imagine there is too much to consider when buying RAM, but I really want to do this right the first time and am sure someone has good advice  

Thanks so much for your time in reading all this! Any and all advice is greatly appreciated!