Need some other opinions on new hardware

Hello,

I have recently decided to buy myself a new computer with a price range of around $1500 aud.
I have a rough idea on what I would like to get, but I have little experience in what to choose e.g. Amd or nvidia or intel vs amd etc...
I have built two computers before by myself but this time I want to make sure what I get will be good for my buck.
I will be buying the parts from a local store called MSY (www.msy.com.au there is a pdf price list on there)
I do not need a monitor, keyboard, mouse, case, dvd drive or fans unless you reccomend a cpu fan.

(My current case is the Coolermaster Haf-932)
I would like to buy either a 60 - 120gb SSD and dont mind about brands.

The reason I want to build this computer is for gaming purposes, mainly World of Warcraft and Battlefield 3.

If you could spare some time to write up a quick combination or parts around my price range and give a brief reasoning behind why you went amd over intel or vice versa etc...
I looked into some reviews and supposedly the amd 7870 is better than the gtx580, then again, I heard that nvidia will be releasing the 600 series soon. Would it be worth waiting?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Jamie.

 

* In the sentence where I mention the 7870, I meant to say the 7950, I was almost asleep when I wrote this.

 

I threw together a compilation of parts, at the time being it is what I plan to go ahead with, if someone has a different opinion please let me know.

Asus Z68 Maximus IV Gen-Z $237
2x 8GB kit 1600 Kingston Hyper-X $98
Patriot PYRO SSD Sanforce SF-2281 120GB $158
AMD 3GB 7970 HIS $529
Intel 1155-pin Core i-5 2700-k 3.5GHz $347
Corsair TX650 Watt $113
Asus Xonar PCI DX $95

Total: $1577

 

If I were to change anything I would just save some money buy getting the following;


Asus P8Z68 Maximus V Gene-Z $229
8GB kit 1600 Kingston Hyper-X $49

Instead of the better motherboard and 8gb down from 16gb.
Would you say it would be better off just staying with the build I have written out first or saving some money.