Intel are far superior to AMD at the moment, and for that price range you'll generally want Intel.
AMD are a good choice for extremely budget PCs atm, with integrated graphics, so not what you're after.
Look at the 6xx Nvidia range, the 680 is the top single gpu card at the moment, the 690 wouldn't be in your price range, and of course is a dual gpu card. With 670 being a very nice card for a fair amount less. If you want to spend less on the card i believe the 660 is out soonish...
Alternatively something like SLI 570's or 580s (price dependant... second hand?) would perform well, but for your price range i'd personally look at a single 6xx card.
Definitely look at an SSD for the boot drive, personally i have a Crucial M4 and i love it, had no issues, although im sure other drives are equally awesome.
If its your first SSD you may want to do some of the following:
http://www.overclock.net/t/1156654/seans-windows-7-install-optimization-guide-for-ssds-hdds
to optimize your install.
Assuming you pick intel i'd suggest 1155; SandyBridge or IvyBridge. Plenty of debate on them out there, personally i would pick IB because of the bonus features, and as someone who's not trying to max the overclock (hell ive not overclocked it yet a few weeks later.. will do soon) i'm not worried about the temps skyrocketing. Some will tell you to get SB, amazing chips but personally i'd like pci3 (even if its not being used yet) / native usb3 / other features.
Thats general advice... If you actually just wanted a spec then someone will come along shortly... but since you said advice
