Never built a gaming rig, need help.

[Basileus]

Alright, so title basically says it all. I've built a pc before but never really shopped around for the best way/hardware for a gaming computer.

Looking to spend probably a max of about 1200$

I play a lot of mmos and first person shooters like crysis 2.

Any advice on what I should get would be awesome.
I don't need a mouse or lay board. Have a naga and razer gaming keyboard.

[Evil Inside]

Answer these questions to better help us give you a suitable build.

Budget
Resolution
Games / Settings Desired
Any other intensive software or special things you do (Frequent video encoding, 3D modeling, etc)
Country
Parts that can be reused
Do you need an OS?
Do you need peripherals (e.g. monitor, mouse, keyboard, speakers, etc)?

[Basileus]

Budget- 1200$
Resolution- 1920x1080
Games- WoW, Rift, Tera, Crysis, diablo 3, looking to be able to play final fantasy 14. High to ultra settings on all.
N/A
Country- U.S.A
None of mine can be reused. All of them are about 4 years old.
I was thinking about getting windows 8 if people suggested it but I do need an OS.
I need a monitor.

[Evil Inside]

Do you need a computer immediately? Because the new intel cpu series is coming out in a month or less, so if possible it would be advisable to wait for that.

[Basileus]

I can wait a month.
But won't the new ones cost a ton more?

[kegz]

Your best bet is to target Newegg and buy your items deal by deal if you have time, or 1 shot with a CPU / Motherboard combo.
If your budget is 1200 I highly recommend you spend at least 250-300 on your processor, 250-300 on your video card, at least 200 on your motherboard, at this point conservatively if you spent $800 that leaves 400 for hard drive and ram which you can split however you want depending on if you do more work that requires memory or disk space, or both.

[Evil Inside]

Fair enough, just asking. In any case this should do well for you and comes

MoBo: ASRock Z77 Pro4 – $109.99
CPU: Intel i5 3570k – $219.99
RAM: Corsair XMS3 1600Mhz 2x4GB – $67.99
GPU: Gigabyte Radeon 7950 – $309.99
HDD: WD Caviar Black 1TB – $94.99
PSU: Seasonic S12II 520W – $64.99
Heatsink: Xigmatek Gaia – $19.99
Case: Cooler Master Storm Enforcer – $84.99
ASUS Monitor $149(after rebate)

Comes to a total of $1122 and should handle mostly everything at max.

[Deleted]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($169.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Xigmatek GAIA SD1283 56.3 CFM CPU Cooler ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Pro3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($94.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($51.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($89.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($62.98 @ Outlet PC)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 XT 2GB Video Card ($253.29 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Thermaltake Commander MS/I Snow Edition (White/Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($43.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: PC Power & Cooling Silencer MK III 400W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($63.98 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($17.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ Outlet PC)
Monitor: Acer H226HQLbid 60Hz 21.5" Monitor ($139.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1099.15
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-05-25 15:15 EDT-0400)

NB: the CPU/motherboard are placeholders. You should get the i5-4670k and the Z87 chipset equivalent. In addition, if you're okay with overspending in exchange for Mail-ins, then you could transition to the GTX760Ti, which is supposedly due out next week (price permitting).

[Killora]

I can wait a month.
But won't the new ones cost a ton more?

No. They will be the same price as the current CPU's.