Honestly phisher, i was not a build it myself type of guy, but I bought all the shit together and its like a puzzle, hard at first, but there's only one way for it to be assembled. Plus, building it yourself will save you more money, allowing you to go for a better build.
I would not go AMD as well. For graphics cards they are alright, I have a ati 7850, and it performs well, but from what i've heard, amd processors are still behind their intel equivalent. So I would go with intel if I were you.