My current is five years old and I am going to hand it to my wife who needs a new machine for her photography.

Budget: $2000 USD (flexible)
More specific use (what games, what programs): CSGO, Shattered Skies, Escape from Tarkov
Planned time until purchase: end of July
Do you need an Operating System?: Yes
Do you have any specific preferred components?: I don't mind spending a little extra for an i7 or 1080.
Do you need a sound or wireless card?: WiFi yes. Sound isn't essential MOBO sound should be good enough
Do you want stock cooling or do you plan on overclocking?: No OC plans but open to it.
Do you need a monitor? mouse? keyboard?: Currently using a 120Hz Samsung that I've had for about 4 years, will buy a 144 in the black friday sales
Zip code/location? (Shipping costs): Canada, USA 27545

What are your preferences in case style? (lights, flashy, dull, etc): Don't give a shit about aesthetics
Are you planning to use multiple monitors? No
Are you looking for upgrade-ability? Not really
Do you have any preferred brands? No
Can you reuse any components from an older build? All my peripherals (headphones, mic, mouse, keyboard)
Is there anything else you think we should know? Not off the top of my head, feel free to ask.

Thanks fellas

http://pcpartpicker.com/list/xR7r7h

Can get windows for 30 bucks off kinguin (legit key)
Wifi you can use a thumbdrive type or pci connector.

The board you can swap with the ROG ranger if you prefer.

GT over the GTX

why a NEX psu? wouldnt a G2 be better?

Why would you put the old cooler over the new one exactly?..

Okay sorry I thought the NEX was the superflower. The g2 would be better yes.

I've read too many reviews about the GTX going bad quicker than the GT, and killing fans extremely fast

Thats why I avoided it when building my PC with lee, I mean both are still great but im very partial to avoiding something i research that has a bunch of "it failed after 1 month/3 weeks/3 months" reviews.

and yeah the G2 is the superflower

Dunno about them failing faster. Have used both the gt and the gtx and it was minimal difference in terms of temps, however I think the GTX looks better.

And how does it kill fans fast exactly?.... you can control the speed of them and it's not like they are lopsided

I made mine in $ CAD
http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/Wg2QVY

High quality, maximum performance components in a subtle case
If you wanna cut down the price, i can recommend downgrading to a gtx 1070, I guess she's gonna use a 1080p monitor?
If you feel like dropping in a bit more, I would recommend a larger SSD.

The reason i went with the Zotac GeForce GTX 1080 8GB AMP! Edition is because it was fair price compared to the rest in stock.
I can recommend Asus Strix, MSI Twin Frozr, Evga FTW/ACX and Gigabyte G1 if you are able to find any of these decent price in the end of July.

I would recommend getting a 4k IPS. or at least 1440p for editing photo's.
The 120Hz could be a secondary monitor for research while editing, and as main for gaming purpose.

Yeah I also made that mistake yesterday.

Thanks for the post, I appreciate it very much. I've been thinking and IU would like to add a couple of things:

I would prefer the primary drive to be around half a terabyte (480 or so). I don't need a secondary drive.

You can get the mushkin i linked for 250 which is 1 tb

or do you have a preferred brand?