Question Is this a good mindset to have when it comes to determining components for a build?

[ZepTepi]

I am beginning the process of figuring out the components for my build I decided that it was best to start by asking myself what things I would/might use this new PC for that would use the most resources(?) are and then determine what the min specs are for those programs and then determine what components met that min and bump them up 1 or 2 gens. I understand that going with components that meet the min specs is not a good plan as they will become insufficient as soon as the next new gen comes out hence why I figured bumping up 1 or 2 gens makes sense.

For me the programs I will or may use in the near to several years out future that I believe are relevant and the current min specs are:

Out of the Park 25(Baseball management sim) - OS: Win8.X/Win10, Processor: Intel or AMD 64 bit, Memory: 2 GB RAM, Graphics: OpenGL 3.1 or newer, min 512 MB GPU memory, Storage: 3 GB avail space.

MS Flight Simulator - OS: Win 10, Processor: Intel i5-4460 / AMD Ryzen 3 1200, Memory: 8 GB RAM, Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 770 / AMD Radeon RX 570, Storage: 150 GB avail space.

General website building(Nothing really intense) - Memory: 8GB RAM

As you can see I'm not a serious gamer and when I do anything on my PC(other than online poker) it's very rarely for more than a few hours at a time.
From those min specs I know that, for instance, the floor for a processor is an Intel i5-4460 or AMD Ryzen 3 1200 of which I believe both are 64 bit but I could be wrong about that, so those processors are not what I would want. Instead I would want, ideally, a couple of generations above those in order for my build to be able to play those programs and future new releases of them well into the future(at least more than a few years).
Am I on the right track with this thinking? If you don't believe so please feel free to tell me why.

Zep

 

[manly]

Thinking about your requirements is certainly important; there are different factors that go into build configurations and one of those is usually budget.

MSFS 2020 is fairly resource intensive; for AAA games, don't even bother looking at "minimum" hardware requirements. Realistically, you should be looking at the recommended or "Ideal" hardware configurations for MSFS. Apparently there is an MSFS 2024 arriving this year, so that could also influence your thinking.

Honestly there's little value in thinking about a decade old CPU (i5-4460) or a low end Ryzen 3 1200 (7 years old). Even if you need to save money, try to target something 5 years old (if not a little newer like AMD Zen 2). Windows 10 is End of Life in about two years, so you should really be thinking about Windows 11 right now. And Win11 has some specific requirements that target systems from 2018 (unofficial tweaks notwithstanding).

 

[Tech Junky]

@ZepTepi

You can spend it now and forget about it for a few years or you can save now and feel like you're smacking yourself in the head in the near term when you have to upgrade again in a short period of time.

Not saying you have to go for the $500 CPU but, this is not an instance of a penny saved is the best option. You can still get high end parts for cheap if you hunt around. I picked up a X670E MOBO in Aug for $160 where other options were at least $300 or more. I paid for the savings though in the CPU @ $400 which promptly dropped about $100 a month later.

If you want value then you have to stay on top of upgrades and switch out parts on a rolling schedule. If you want stability then you get what you pay for normally when it comes to the parts.

The biggest costs are the CPU/MOBO/GPU though. You can save on the CPU if you pay more for the GPU. The MOBO is just the foundation though that makes it all work. If you go with a cheap MOBO that's not stellar in build quality then you're asking for problems.

GPU's though have options from Nvidia / AMD / Intel though and prices are back where they should be unless you're looking at the extreme end of the spectrum on either end. My price point would be looking around the $250 neighborhood for leisure gaming with the most RAM you can afford since that's where the games live once they get copied to the GPU.

If you want to spec out a system use pcpartpicker.com and it will walk you through the process. First decision needs to be the CPU so the motherboard selection matches it. From there the rest filters out anything that wouldn't be ideal. From there you have your shopping list and can hunt down the best deals.

 

[VirtualLarry]

My price point would be looking around the $250 neighborhood for leisure gaming with the most RAM you can afford since that's where the games live once they get copied to the GPU.

You can get a number of discounted AMD and Intel GPUs around that price point, with above 8GB frame-buffers (VRAM size).

 

[manly]

You can get a number of discounted AMD and Intel GPUs around that price point, with above 8GB frame-buffers (VRAM size).

I guess you mean used?

For new, $250 probably limits you to 8GB VRAM unless you raise the budget:
$280 - Arc A770
$330 - Radeon RX 6750 XT

Admittedly these aren't currently discounted, and I'd consider them only if you chipped away another $25 or so. Without knowing OP's budget, we can only guess at what he should do. The MSFS 2020 "Ideal" system configuration isn't that extravagant, so I would just target that. I'd scale up depending on actual budget and desire to be more "future proof."

 

[Torn Mind]

Basically, if you don't feel like doing workarounds when installing Windows 11, get an Intel gen chip that is iX-8xxx or later. Or an AMD Ryzen 2000 generation or later.

8 GB of RAM is workable if your browsing sessions are small and you close everything without a care at the end of the browsing session.

However, with an SSD main drive, most of the process will be put in RAM rather than dumped into the page file, so it is very easy to hit 8 GB with little open in a current Win10 or 11 install. I have nothing but Edge open and about 20 tabs. I'm already using 16 GB RAM.

 

[ZepTepi]

For my budget, I haven't set it yet because I am looking for that sweet spot between not paying for more than I need but also future proofing my build as much as makes sense. I know that if I do a build that has specs in line with what I would need right now then it's not going to be long before I'm needing to think about upgrading so the "not paying for more than I need" really means more than I need for the foreseeable future.