Building my first PC since 2009 - Could use some direction

Hey there guys, first post here.  I built a gaming rig back in 2009 and since then I've gotten a gaming Asus Laptop as a gift (and for "school").  I am looking to upgrade to a desktop and ditch my 2009 piece of junk.  My brother just spent ~1500$ on Black Friday deals on Newegg to make a sick gaming rig that runs everything on ultra settings with no lag whatsoever.

My problem, however, is that I do not get paid all that well and am looking to buy a budget PC that will run the following games on at least high settings: Skyrim, Battlefield 3, Guild Wars 2, and Planetside 2.  I have no doubt that if I built a rig that could handle those, all of my other games would run like a dream too (they do even on my current laptop).

I have not done this in a while and was hoping you guys could point me in the right direction on building a decent PC (hopefully under $1000) that would be able to run what I want them to.  I have no idea what current hardware is better or worse than other pieces out there today so I don't want to just buy cheap and get stuck with a crap rig.

I'm not asking you to go out and put a Newegg list together for me (though if you have time and want to, feel free!) I am simply asking for some advice on how I should spot some good pieces that won't burn a hole in my wallet.

 

Thanks!

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/qonm

Could switch the case out of course, I just like it. 

This thing should Max skyrim and most likely Bf3.

I would check out the Video section 

all the Setup they do are on gaming rigs they have just updated the $300 one to a $350 set up and runs all games at 30FPS 

The latest one they have done $550 

But the main is still the same as it was back in 2009 

Motherboard and cpu but i would spend the most on a good graphics card, the supprising thing is some Graphics cards can cost more then a desktop on its own 

do your resarch mainly on the Graphics 

You then need to choose if you go down the Intel Route or Amd 

If your on a Budget i would go with Amd as you get More for your Money 

But if your Budget is $1000 then you will get a realy good set up

Also try and avoid relying on having to clock the machine at first make sure what you get is up to the job Now 

so you can ramp it up later this save buying major cooling 

 

Yeah I am likely going to get literally the cheapest case I can find.  It will be under my desk and un-seen by all anyway.  You said it should run Skyrim and BF3?  Right now the only game I have any trouble running is Planetside 2.  But I'd love to run my other games at mex settings instead of mid-level ones.

Yeah the videos are what brought me here.  Rather than asking questions on the video I felt it best to bring it here.  Those rigs he makes can run most modern games at 30 FPS?  If that's the case, hell I will just build a 350 or 500 dollar one.