Commonly the creatures you will fight at level 10 will have an attack of between +13 to +20 depending on type and number. The BBEG might have more.
An AC of 40 means you will almost never get hit. This is pretty hard to arrange though at your level.
An AC of 30 will mean you get hit probably less than half the time. This is pretty decent.
An AC of 25 will get hit a fair bit; an AC of 20 will get hit most of the time. This can still be workable if you have lots of HP and your party has a lot of healing handy.
It really depends on whether you are carrying a shield or not. Having a shield means a secondary source of enhancement bonuses, which means a considerably higher potential armor class.
If you have full plate, a heavy shield, and no dex bonus your AC will be 21.
+3 to the shield and the armor each will cost 9,000.
+2 amulet of natural armor and ring of protection are 8,000 each.
This is more than half your WBL and brings you to AC 31.
The Sash of the War Champion is only 4,000 and enhances your armor training ability (if you are a basic fighter without archetype) by 4 levels. That will increase the max dex bonus of your armor so if you have a decent dex you can do that. Mithral armor is also good but is quite expensive for heavy armor.
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/wondrous-items/r-z/sash- of-the-war-champion
At your level though you should start thinking about gaining abilities that give your enemy a miss chance, like blur or displacement. As you increase in level you will gradually lose the AC vs attack rating arms race, and these abilities will do more for you at high levels to reduce the damage you are taking. Likewise if you can find ways to get DR that will do a lot for you.
Sadly, 3.5 had armor properties that did these things but I'm not sure where to find any for pathfinder.
Peet
Basically your optimal choice is, for pure defense,
IF you have Dex of 14 or more, but 16 or less go with
Mithral Full Plate +4 (AC 13)
Mithral Tower Shield +4 (AC 8)
Ring of Protection +2 (AC 2)
Amulet of Natural Armor +2 (AC 2)
Dex (AC 2 or 3)
AC 38 (10 + 13 + 8 + 2 + 2 + 3)
This is very high, you will probably never get hit, but you'll only have 2K left to play with. In other words you probably wont be dangerous enough for enemies to even worry about.
If you go with weighting your stuff then 2/4th of money 31,000 gp starting for level 10, would go to defense with 15500 going to offense and 15500 going to utility/limited use.
So probably
Full Plate +3
Tower Shield +3
Ring of Protection +2
Amulet of Natural Armor +1
Dex 0
AC 32 (10 + 12 + 7 + 2 + 1 + 0)
A single +3 magic weapon
and some potions to keep you alive, even though they are not ideal for resource usage.
Remember, that potion of Cure Critical Wounds means you can heal yourself when you are low instead of that healer who is 4 ranks lower on initiative order, and sometimes this is the difference between you dying and living.
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Probably about 28-32(I just whipped up a couple builds to test this and it holds true though the range is a bit more like 25-33) depending on the wealth of your campaign is good for a dps fighter. Two handed fighters will probably be at the lower end of the range with archers and two weapon fighters a little higher due to better dex. Depends on the magic level, but that seems fair to me.
Human (Taldan) Fighter 10
N Medium humanoid (human)
Init +6; Senses Perception +11
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Defense
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AC 29, touch 16, flat-footed 26 (+12 armor, +2 Dex, +1 natural, +1 deflection, +1 dodge, +1 insight, +1 luck)
hp 104 (10d10+40)
Fort +13, Ref +7, Will +8 (+3 vs. fear)
Defensive Abilities bravery +3
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee +2 adamantine greatsword +22/+17 (2d6+15/17-20/×2)
Ranged +1 adaptive composite longbow +14/+9 (1d8+8/×3)
Special Attacks weapon training abilities (heavy blades +2, bows +1)
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Statistics
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Str 22, Dex 14, Con 18, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 7
Base Atk +10; CMB +16 (+20 overrun); CMD 32 (34 vs. overrun)
Feats Critical Focus, Dodge, Greater Overrun, Greater Weapon Focus (greatsword), Improved Critical
(greatsword), Improved Initiative, Improved Overrun, Iron Will, Power Attack, Step Up, Weapon Focus
(greatsword), Weapon Specialization (greatsword)
Skills Acrobatics +2, Climb +7, Intimidate +11, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +7, Knowledge (engineering)
+4, Perception +11, Survival +14, Swim +7
Languages Common
Combat Gear Jingasa of the fortunate soldier (1/day); Other Gear +3 Full plate, +1 Adaptive Composite
longbow (Str +0), +2 Adamantine Greatsword, Amulet of natural armor +1, Belt of physical perfection +2,
Cloak of resistance +2, Ioun stone (dusty rose prism), Ring of protection +1, 2900 GP
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Depends on how you built your character. Over all when I build a character that is not focused on AC. I make sure to have extra HP. Over all I have a level 8 Fighter that has a AC17. The difrence is making sure when you have a lower AC invest in fortification. As that will help more for the type of character im playing then incressing his AC.
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So many enchantment bonus on armours and items. I'm level 8 and so far I only manage to have 460 gp ish because we are splitting all the loots and gold by 6. How will I ever be able to buy a ring or protection, selling my full-plate? Can't we just have a full plate that gives you +9. Tower shield gives you +4. + 3 AC from your dex because you have armour training. You now have 26 AC. Not very good, but with enough int, you can get Combat expertise to have -3 to hit (in which point you don't have to worry because you are a fighter) and +3 to AC. Take Dodge, that is another +1. You have 30 AC at your hand with no magic items! Awesome! Now you have good chance of not being hit by attacks while living in a world that is more real, and gold doesn't rain down every time you kill something.
I agree with MassivePauldrons that a goal of 28-32 would be nice.
To continue on Peet's idea, here are all the items I know of that give miss chance.
At your level though you should start thinking about gaining abilities that give your enemy a miss chance, like blur or displacement.
Peet
Continuous
Cloak of Displacement, Minor (24,000g) blur/continuousCloak of Displacement (50,000g) displacement/continuous
Veil of Fleeting Glances (9,000g) 50% chance to not be affected by gaze attacks, if affected, roll twice to save against them
# of uses/day
Haunted Shoes give 20% miss chance for 3 minutes/day (6,400g).
Mirror of Guarding Reflection gives a 50% miss chance (you have to use an immediate action) 3/day (7,000g)
Cloak of Flash and Shadow grants casting blur 3/day (11,000g)
Stormlure grants 50% miss chance against ranged attacks for 1 minute/day
Mistmail grants 20% miss chance 1/day (2,250g)
Robe of Scintillating Colors is a terribly costly way of getting displacement (27,000g)
Harp of Storms requires using in your hands - bad for fighters.
Nightmare boots give 20% miss chance 3/day + whenever you run or charge (8,500g)
1 use
Black Tribal War Paint grants the blur effect for 24 hours (1,800g)
Catching Cape is a 1 use item that grants blur for 1 minute (200g)
The catching cape grants concealment against missile attacks only, but can be used as a swift action. Boots of nightmare are only on for 1 round but activate as a swift action.
The mirror is neat but it has to be held to work, which means it's not that good for a fighter. I would not recommend mistmail as while you are using it for the miss chance you lose the AC bonus from the armor. I think mistmail is mainly meant for rogues.
Stormlure is an amulet that is neat but only works against ranged attacks.
Cloak of flash and shadow and haunted boots are decent spell-in-a-can items.
A potion of blur costs 300 gp, and lasts for 3 minutes, but takes a standard action to use.
A potion of displacement costs 750 gp and lasts for 5 rounds.
Peet
Yes, mistmail is mostly for rogue or someone who is against range touch attacks very often. Because the AC from armor doesn't help you with touch attack, but the miss chance does. And the rogue may choose to have +5 AC instead if he ever lose his dex bonus. For fighters, it's better to have your team cast displacement on you instead. This will max out the fighter's chance to survive better while flat footed. It's one of fighter's job after all, to fight and win while the whole team is flat footed.