Newbie, Need Some Direction

So I want to get into 40k as my local game shop started carrying it finally, and are going to support it a bit. So I am finding decent resources on how to play the game, paint, etc. However I am finding it difficult to figure out how to put an decent army together and what is actually good (and finding a source with pt values and what not). I also know 8th edition is going to be released soon, so making an army right now probably isn't optimal, but if there are mainstay units I wouldn't mind picking those up and practice modeling and painting for now.

What I do know is I want to play some sort of Chaos. I am not sure which one though. I really lack knowledge where to figure out how units synergize and stuff and what is strong, and weak. Right now I just kinda look at units and say "hey that looks cool" and research it a bit into it, but nothing cohesive. I know I would like to start of relatively small maybe 750-1000 points (maybe 1500pts if that would be better). Some things that caught my eye that I though would be fun would be running a faster army with 2 or 3 maulerfiends, and bikes, maybe a daemon prince, and other units.

Any resources where I can make a list and figure out point totals without buying a 7th edition codex would be great as well.