Let's pretend I had the dosh

[Beerislife]

So, if I was thinking of putting together a new system based on a Ryzen 7 7800X3D CPU and wanted a motherboard and 32Gb RAM plus an AMD GPU with at least 8Gb VRAM (12Gb preferable) Suitable Watt PSU and case. What figure am I looking at minimum do you reckon? (I do mean minimum, and my currency is Japanese yen, which is really in bad shape right now! Everything is really expensive here right now! The price of beer is killing me!)

I don't want advice on Intel or Nvidia...

Just dreaming of my almost perfect X-Plane rig...

[Schwarzer Kater]

This depends on several other things than only CPU, GPU and RAM size - like the case (and reaaally good fans can be expensive, too) or the storage devices…
I would roughly estimate around 1500,-€ - plus/minus 500,-€ - depending e.g. if you want to build it yourself, want to have a quality case or a crazy cooling system like oshunluvr, the exact GPU model. etc.

PS: A friend of mine who owns a little computer store built a Linux gaming PC for a customer this year ('23) with: Intel i7-13700, AMD Radeon RX 6800XT, 32GB RAM, msi mainboard and 1TB Kingston KC3000 NVMe. IIRC it was around 2000,-€ for the customer including a quality case, silent fans and VAT…
The customer runs Garuda KDE Dr460nized on it.

[Beerislife]

I have storage coming out of my ears, it would be an easy transfer. I haven't built a PC for myself since the Pentium 4 up in the loft running OS/2 Warp 4.5 so it might be fun!

[oshunluvr]

I always build my own so I can re-use things like PSU, case, fans, etc., and I usually end up spending about $2000. I don't upgrade very often, so when I do I find the highest rating for an item - then drop down one level or so until the price makes sense for my needs.

You can always add RAM later, but that can be a problem if you wait too long because you may not be able to get compatible sticks. GPU and your requirements will be the biggest variable. I'm not a real gamer so I don't have to reach very high for this, but I do like a dedicated GPU.

The requirements for X-plane aren't really that high in CPU power or RAM requirements, If you need to shave off some yen, lower the specs a bit but stick with a better GPU.

Here in USA:
7800X3D: $400
32GB DDR5 RAM: $90
850W PSU (Gold): $80

AMD Radeon 7900XT: $800
AMD Radeon 6700XT: $340

Big jump in video cost. The 6700 would probably be just fine for X-Plane. Now you need: CPU cooler, case, storage (NVME drives), (monitor(s), keyboard, mouse, and of course motherboard.

You didn't mention a preference in Motherboard brand and I don't have one personally. I've used motherboard from many brands and the experience has been about that same. You pay for features and hope it's solid. I'm running on an MSI board right now and don't really like their BIOS. My previous was Asus and I liked it more. I also have a Gigabyte board in my server which I really don't like the BIOS but it's just a server so I hardly mess with it and it's low end Mini-ITX with built-in CPU. It does it's job.

I would go for the latest-best chipset version, built-in Wifi, and at least 2 PCIe 4.0 nvme slots (mine has 4). NVME drives vary a lot in price and not much in performance. Frankly, they are so fast you won't notice a "slow" nvme drive vs. a fast one. I recommend 2 so you can have a full 100% backup. You can spend $60 each for a good quality 1TB nvme drive or $120 for the best. Slight less than double that to get 2TB drives if you need more space.

So if you go with the above and pick the 6700XT card your around $1200 USD or 170,000 yen. Then you need case ($80), CPU cooler ($30) and accessories, and the motherboard. As far as I can tell, the X570 chipset is the latest and greatest. Here's a nicely featured Asus for $200:

https://www.asus.com/us/motherboards...70-plus-wi-fi/

Once you add it all up, you're at $1500-1600 plus whatever you need for keyboard, mouse, monitors - which is probably $0 since you have those I assume.

[Beerislife]

My 32" monitor is recent and I'm well covered with SSD drives, keyboard and mouse. I only require the PC. I'm going to look at our PC parts picker and see what I can get under 200,000 yen!

The only problem is buying without the boss finding out! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[claydoh]

My 32" monitor is recent

What resolution? If you don't intend to do 4k gaming, a top end GPU may not be worth the $$ ( I mean ¥¥). Or factor in a new monitor
I stuck with a middle-ish range for costs to performance reasons, and added a second monitor instead.

PC Part Picker has a really good and friendly forum. They will be very helpful.

[Qqmike]

I won't be much help since I only build basic, mainstream desktops.
However, the basic "mainstream" does provide a benchmark for the (absolute) lower limit.
I do like brand names, rather than white box, even though I suspect that so many components now are commoditized, that perhaps the no-name generic competes favorably with a brand name.

Recent 2021 system build:

Case $95 Corsair 4000D Tempered Glass Mid-Tower ATX PC Case - White
Motherboard $179 ASUS Prime Z590-P LGA 1200 (Intel 11th/10th Gen) ATX Motherboard
CPU $219 Intel Core i5-10500 - 10th Gen Comet Lake 6-Core 3.1 GHz LGA 1200 65W Intel UHD Graphics 630
Memory $139 Crucial 32GB Kit (2 x 16GB) DDR4-2666 UDIMM, CT2K16G4DFD8266,
Storage $65 Samsung 870 EVO 500GB 2.5 Inch SATA III Internal SSD (MZ-77E500B/AM)
Monitor $139 Asus VA24EHE 23.8” Monitor, 1080P, Full HD, IPS, 75Hz, HDMI D-Sub DVI-D,
Power Supply $120 Corsair RMX Series, RM750x, 750 Watt, 80+ Gold Certified, Ful Modular PS (CP-9020179-NA)
Speakers $20 Logitech 3.5mm Jack Compact Laptop Speakers, Black (Z130)

Total: $ 976 plus state tax = $1044 (plus any Keyboard, Mouse, Fans, adapters, cables, etc.)

Note that there is no discrete GPU here.

The comments from the guys make sense in this context, like buying good fans, a GPU, the monitor consideration, good speakers for gaming, etc.
Also, I believe some prices have gone down, like basic memory.

(I hate my formatting. How to put it into a table or with tabs?!)

[Beerislife]

I don't game, I just fly X-Plane. I'd really like to push the settings up in its options to get more detail without losing FPS.

With only a 4Gb RX6400 GPU, my settings are rather modest. Luckily, the 32Gb DDR4 main memory helps a bit.

I thought about ripping out the PSU and GPU and replacing them with something beefier but when all said and done, it
would be better to replace the whole PC!

Lenovo IdeaCentre 510A-15ARR
AMD Ryzen 5 3400G with Radeon Vega Graphics
Team DDR4 2666Mhz PC4-21300 16GBx2
AMD Radeon RX 6400 4Gb
Western Digital WDS100T3B0C-EC NVMe SSD, 1 TB (System)
Crucial 3D NAND TLC SATA 2.5inch SSD MX500 Series 1.0TB CT1000MX500SSD1JP (X-Plane)
Dell S3222HS 31.55-Inch Curved Monitor Full HD VA Matte 1800R