From what I understood, an SSD only affects start-up speed and the loading time of what few programs you store on one. Basically you're just paying a few hundred bucks so you can brag on tech forums about how fast your computer starts. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

While the big noticeable improvements will be for startup times programs access data on your hard drive for more than just startup. Any time data is accessed from your hard drive it will be faster.

When using computers you open and close files an applications all the time. SSD's make ever one of those times faster. If you like waiting when you click program icons great but I like things to open when I tell them. No waiting on maps loading when playing games, heck no waiting for the game to load when you open it.

HDD's are the bottleneck on any data intensive operation and I view them as a must in any high end computer build when budget isn't a huge factor.

Given that, shouldn't I get a bigger SSD, then? Or two of the other ones or something? I mean, it'll fill up quicker, but it sounds like most of the time I'd like things to be on the SSD (code, programs, data, word documents, etc.). Things that maybe don't matter as much are, like, music, videos, pictures. I could keep most things on a second SSD, and then put the latter on even, like, a 1TB HDD and still probably be okay (most of my stuff is going to be moved onto the 2TB HDD I use which'll be connected to my laptop and on the network so I can suck it down on demand).

Additionally, would going overkill on the processor make sense in the long run, or will I just want to be upgrading in year either way?

A bigger single SSD is likely to last longer but I would still recommend a SSD along side a traditional HDD unless you really think you'll keep everything on the External drive. HDD's are just that much cheaper for the storage that there is little reason to pay for an SSD big enough for everything. Even Tari went with a spinning disk for his laptops secondary, SSD's while being stupid fast are also not as cheap when it comes to $/GB.

As for the processor, I'd vote overkill but then again I've been limping along with my almost 5 year old Desktop and have only run into a few things that truely make me want to upgrade. That said Tari has built and used machines built more recently than me for personaly use. The last few machines I've built and dealt with I either haven't personally used or were built with different workloads in mind so I would trust his judgement on where to go with the CPU.

This is what me and Tari tentatively speced out in my office:
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1m4zO
Thoughts?

I would perhaps go with the Haswell i7-4770K and a socket 1150 Motherboard but it seems that pcpartpicker website doesn't have those on there yet. That said I haven't seen any real numbers if Haswell is really worth a $30 price jump over the Ivy Bridge i7-3770K.

The other decision would be ram, going 4x4GB would give you a hair higher performance for most likely a slightly lower cost but make it a pain to upgrade to more later if you so desired. The 2x8GB you have spec'd now would be easier to upgrade later but as it currently stands have slightly lower performance and last I checked 2x8GB kits were more than the 4x4GB kits.

From the reviews I have seen of the Haswell 4770K, the performance is only minimally better than the Ivy Bridge line (5-10%), though it is optimized for lower power consumption. Your call really whether the $30 is worth it, but my personal opinion is that it would be a good idea since it still does still provide the greatest performance on the market (you're building a gaming PC after all) and because you are building from scratch, not upgrading.
If you want a more comprehensive review, here's a good one: http://archive.benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1159&Itemid=63

And regarding the power supply, make sure that it will be sufficient not only for your current build, but for future upgrades that you might make. Throw your specs into a calculator like this one (http://www.thermaltake.outervision.com/Power) and allow decent margin between the number it spits out and the psu you're looking at, keeping in mind the loss of around 15-20% sustained power on the bronze rated psu's (I'd say build to about 60% of the capacity of the psu). 500W struck me as a bit low for a ~$2000 budget gaming PC.

So I'm revisiting this because I haven't yet pulled the trigger--I'm thinking it will be early October that I do get around to this. So, anything I should change on my list at all?
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1m4zO

4770k over 3770k
Z87 motherboard instead - I have the Asus Z87-PRO and like it, but there are plenty of superb Z87 boards to choose from
Either get 1 512gb ssd or just get 1 250gb SSD, there's really no point to getting 2 SSDs
don't waste your money on the factory overclocked video cards, save the $40 and get the regular 4GB 770 (or add some money and get the 780)
That power supply is mediocre, get for the Seasonic X-850 or Corsair HX850w instead.

I went in to Micro Center with $550 to build my brother's computer (we already had a case, DVD drive and peripherals) and was not disappointed. They have people there who not only know what's good, but what's on sale, and can and will get you the best value they have. I'll post the specs on what I got later in a separate topic, I just wanted to recommend the store if you're still on the fence about what and how you want to buy.

OH- and they will match prices on some things, so if you go, bring a phone or tablet that can get on the web.

It looks like the 780 has less ram and is slower than the 770s. What's the advantage to it? What's the non-overclocked 770? Is this one good?

The 770 does seem to be a better deal than the 780 when it comes to price vs Performance so sticking what a GTX 770 looks to be the way to go, that or you could go with the little bit cheaper AMD HD 7970.

The card you pick is factory overclocked as the base clock on the 770 is 1.014Ghz and should be around $400. The HD 7970 can be gotten for closer to $310 to $350 and is no slouch either.

Based on all these suggestions, this is what I've got:
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1DhaB
I jumped up to a 1TB SSD...

As nice as a 1TB SSD would be that samsung uses TLC which won't last as long as the MLC based SSD like 512GB 840 Pro and it would be ever so slightly slower. That said at 1TB there is plenty of space for wear leveling so that won't be as much of an issue.

I would still suggest you go with a 512GB SSD and a 1 TB traditional Spinning disk for data and backups.

According to this, I'm still looking at 10 years, which is longer than I expect the rest of the components to last (or even for 1TB to be a worthwhile amount of storage).

Yeah I remember that article, and that is why I went with the TLC based 840 for my Laptop, because I know the drive will out live it with at little as I use it. With this likely to be your main desktop I'd still be wary but if you aren't worried about it then go for it.

Alright, this is back on my list of things I need to start doing. xmas bonus is going into this. How's my list looking now? Any changes recently?
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1DhaB

That all looks pretty solid to me, and I especially approve of your graphics card choice. I'd question whether you really need a BluRay reader, but it looks like that feature isn't tacking too much onto the sticker price.

Well, since I don't have anything else that plays blurays, it seems like a worthwhile investment.

That's fair. I don't have anything that plays BluRay discs either, but I also don't have or need BluRay discs, so that's where I was coming from.