My very first PC Build Help!

AJfor3

Hi all,
This is my first time ever looking to get a PC over a console for gaming. I would love to hear input and suggestions on a pc build for around $1500-$2000, that can play games like COD, Apex, etc. When looking at all the options it gets very overwhelming quickly. I would love to have a good graphics card, and refresh rate. I am not interested in streaming, just gaming and utilizing the pc for work. Anyone have suggestions or builds they would recommend?
Thanks!

TSTonyV

So at that price point you can build yourself a nice high-end system. If you're just gaming, we'll want to look at Intel for the CPU for the superior single-threaded performance and therefore an advantage in gaming scenarios. 

https://www.microcenter.com/site/content/custom-pc-builder.aspx?load=1d014c95-b6b4-4da8-997f-555ae9bedbc0

I intentionally left the GPU empty because NVIDIA just revealed the new RTX 3000 series, and we should hopefully see availability starting in mid and late September. It's shaping up to be a big improvement over the current 2000 series so I would 100% wait until they're on the market. The RTX 3070 will be around $500, the RTX 3080 will be around $700, so both those options will fit within your price range very well and be a good pairing while still leaving some wiggle-room. 

AJfor3

Thank you so much! I definitely will wait for the new GPU’s to come out. A few more questions for you since I am very new to this process. 

Would I need any extra cooling fans for a build like this? Or is the water cooling kit enough? 

I also love the RGB lighting, what parts would you recommend RGB lighting for? 

Lastly, what level of fps would you expect with a build like this and what type of gaming monitor would you recommend? 1440? 4K capable?

TSTonyV

A 240mm water cooler is more than appropriate for a 10600k. The cooler is actually one of the easy ways to fit RGB in as you could get something like the Corsair H100i Platinum. The NZXT Kraken I listed on the build has RGB on the pump, but not the fans. You could also do RGB RAM although it's going to cost a little extra to for the same speed memory.

 Many motherboards will include RGB lighting on them at a variety of price ranges. 

You will easily hit 1080p/144FPS in basically any title. Based only on relative performance numbers NVIDIA gave us, both the 3070 and 3080 should be great for 4k gaming and of course excellent 1440p. I would expect with the new generation cards that 1440p/144FPS will be easily attainable even in more graphically intense titles, but obviously we don't actually know until reviews come out and we see real world benchmarks. 

Personally, I'd go with a 1440p monitor unless you plan on getting a very large monitor. I'm currently running a 27", 1440p/144FPS monitor and it's been great for me so far.