I disagree with only putting in 8GB at this point. My gaming PC is more or less specialized at this point and there have been times where I've started to see titles pushing past the 4GB barrier. Keep in mind that the current gen consoles have access to 5GB of shared RAM now, so by the time you factor in PC-specific enhancements you could easily see games that are pushing 6GB+ within this generation. I'd future-proof a little and stick with 16GB, minimum. It's generally not much more expensive than 8GB and it'll give a bit more headroom. Windows, since Vista, makes very effective use of otherwise unused system RAM, so having a bit of extra could only help performance.
The more SSDs, the merrier. I currently have a 180GB Intel 530 for the OS and general applications and two 500GB Samsungs (one 840 EVO, one 850 EVO) for games. It's amazing how much of a difference it can make in load times.
As far as CPUs go, another thing to keep in mind is that some games--particularly ones that use heavy Lua scripting--cannot multithread effectively, so per-core performance can be paramount depending on what you're doing. World of Warcraft, for instance, tends to bottleneck harder on the CPU than the GPU. My iMac (in OS X) tends to outperform most mid-range PCs I come across despite having a mobile GPU, simply because it has a desktop i7-3770 in it.
Best bet is to run MSI Afterburner with the overlay and play a few games. If any single CPU core is pegging, you'd probably be better off with an i5/i7. If not, AMD will be fine and should offer more bang for your buck.
Heh. I still need to come up with a sample build of some sort. Completely slipped my mind; sorry about that! <_<
Also, keep in mind that Bobbias is in Canada, so I imagine he'd probably prefer something domestic instead of our exotic international goods (i.e. customs is a bitch).
Edit: Regarding the RAM remark, I just fired up The Division and it consumes an average of 6.2GB of RAM, going up to around 9.2-9.5GB during area transitions. I'd say 16GB is more or less becoming required at this point for modern games.