Gaming PC config help

Hi all!
It’s finally about time to upgrade to my next DS gaming PC. It’s been a while so not totally sure where to start with a build.

Budget:
$4,000 unless there’s a compelling reason to go a little higher.

Expectations:
I currently play mostly FPS and open world games (Call of Duty, The Division 2, Far Cry and soon Cyberpunk 2077) and want those to all play super smoothly on ultra settings. I have a 1440p 144hz monitor but may be making the jump to a 1440p with 240hz so want to plan for really cranking up frame rates without sacrificing much in the way of visual quality.

I’m also interested in trying out VR in titles like Squadrons so want to make sure it’s built to handle that as well.

Usage:
This will only be for gaming at this point so don’t have to plan for anything else.

Special Needs:
No special needs

Any help or a starting point would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Awesome, thank you so much, that's super helpful!

Here's the build I made: 3491636

And I had a few questions:

-What's the reasoning for not overclocking the GPU?

-In terms of a case upgrade is there a benefit to doing that besides aesthetics?

-Anything else you'd change in here? Both for the immediate needs or to help future proof it to last a bit longer?

Thanks again!

That's pretty much the build I had in mind for you. You have no additional storage, which you will need pretty quickly if you want that "lean and mean" and easily managed primary drive. If you have storage you can bring over, that will do nicely. As I said, the 1TB SSDs DS offers are convenient enough to buy here that the premium for installation, testing, and DS warranty is easy to pay. When you get into the 2GB and above, they are quite better priced if you can install your own. That's not a knock on what DS charges, it's just a fact. With your budget, fwfdfireman is correct, you should be thinking all SSD storage.

We don't recommend overclocking the GPU on air cooling because it doesn't result in much performancewise, but it makes the fans kick on more often at higher speeds, and stresses the card. In the special case of the RTX 3000s, they have had to have a special driver modification from Nvidia because the alternate manufacturers got too aggressive with the cards when they are already aggressively clocked at stock. That's an over-simplification, but you can look into it yourself. I think it may be particularly risky to overclock a 3000 series.

The Lumos case has very good air flow and looks great. The Lynx is not quite as attractive IMHO, but comes with the RGB fans at no extra $. It also stays pretty cool, so your choice. I would like the colors, but it costs quite a bit in the Lumos for the Corsair LLs.

This build could well last up to 8 years with just a GPU upgrade waayy down the line! Good job!

It's our pleasure, ryanh829. Welcome back!