$1000 budget gaming desktop. Questions on compatibility & part recommendations

[StormCloudSeven]

Long story short I'm looking forward to building a desktop mainly for gaming/video editing/3D animation. I've set my budget to around $1000, but to keep things perhaps easier for people kind enough to recommend parts to me, lets just say $1200 is the maximum limit (Black Friday&Cyber Monday might knock your recommendations down to around $1000).

Before you'd so kindly start recommending builds through PCPartPicker, I'd like to mention that I've stumbled upon the NZXT Phantom Full tower case recently, and I love the designs on it since it really fits my style. I know the Phantom 410 has a similar design as well, but its relatively smaller with less fans. I'll leave it up to you guys to decide which one, but I'd really appreciate it if you can revolve the build around one of those 2 cases.

I'm a first timer when it comes to building a desktop, my only past experiences were upgrading the video card on my current PC with a GTS 450 and upgrading the power unit as well. From what I've researched so far, I got the impression that there is a possibility when it comes to building desktops, that some parts might not be compatible with other parts; such as video cards having bad compatibility with the motherboard and causing crashes, or simply motherboard being too big/small for the case, or the power supply unit having different screw setups than the computer case.
Please note that this actually my #1 concern when it comes to building my own PC for the first time, and its the main reason why I've come to this website hoping you guys might clear this up for me. I really want to avoid buying parts that don't go well together and having to return them and get different parts, while the rest of the build remains unfinished in my house as I wait for the new parts to get shipped.

So my question is: When you guys recommend builds on PCPartPicker or something, Do the site or you consider such physical/digital compatibility issues? Or do parts generally work and fit together no matter the combination?

I apologize if I'm writing this a bit too long, but here are some additional info:
- I'd like to be able to play up coming games such as Watch Dogs on this PC with 30+ fps at medium to high graphics settings.
- Preferably 8 core processors / at least 8GBs of ram / 1TB storage / DX 11 / Video card with 2GB video RAM or more / 64 bit system (these are the recommendations for Watch Dog's ultra settings)
- My budget does have to include the OS, but not the keyboard and mouse stuff.

 

[jtenorj]

I haven't used pcpartpicker in a while, but they do catch at least some sets of parts that won't work together(cpu/mobo primarily). not sure about something such as the fact a full atx mobo will not fit in a micro atx case(not a problem for you regardless of a full atx mobo or micro atx mobo since you are looking at the likes of the nzxt 410 and phantom which or both plenty big). Not sure it they catch stuff like whether a very long performance graphics card will fit in a particular chassis. You kind of need to find the actual dimensions of the card you are looking at(not the dimensions of the box it ships in) and the internal clearance for cards in a chassis.