Some of Intel's 10th Gen Core processors, based on Comet Lake-S, are deeply discounted right now, to the point where a strong argument could be made for building a gaming PC around one of them rather than waiting for newer silicon to arrive. One of them is the Intel Core i5 10600K. It's on sale for $229.99 at Best Buy, down from $279.99 (save $50).
Granted, Intel is on the cusp of releasing its 11th Gen Core processors based on Rocket Lake-S, and AMD has already launched its Ryzen 5000 series (Zen 3), though the latter is in short supply. Both are enticing options, but only if you are willing to wait. If you need to build a PC right now, though, the Core i5 10600K is a solid option for the money.
The Core i5 10600K is a 6-core/12-thread processor with a 4.1GHz base clock and 4.8GHz max turbo frequency. It also features 12MB of L3 cache, and an unlocked multiplier (denoted by the "K" designation), for those of you who are into overclocking.
Performance is roughly on par with AMD's Ryzen 5 5600X—the latter is a little bit faster overall in CPU intensive tasks (x264 video encoding, Cinebench), while the two chips trade blows in gaming. However, the Core i5 10600K is $70 cheaper at the moment, and just as importantly, it's in stock. It doesn't support PCI Express 4.0, though, so there are pros and cons to building now versus waiting.
Another option if you want to build right now is the Core i7 10700. It's an 8-core/16-thread processor that is clocked at 2.9GHz to 4.8GHz, and it's on sale for $294.99 at Best Buy (down from $339.99). Likewise, the Core i7-10700K (still one of the best CPUs for gaming) is on sale for $344.99 (down from $389.99).
