I use PopOS on my rig which is primarily gaming. It does great and gets out of my way.

To have one ready out of the box with linux maybe look at the System76 offerings? https://system76.com/

Edit: just got a chance to check and they are slightly above your $1000 criteria. So maybe on his recommendation.

Pop has been Rock solid for me and steam gaming. Trivial to set up and the store is wonderful too. Nice that it works great for non gaming tasks as well.