My #1 priority is actually idle power usage. Efficiency on load is irrelevant. 99% of the time, it will be idle or web browsing. With low idle power, good Linux support (especially for decoding) and efficiency cores for light usage, I heavily lean on Intel. I don't mind if it is inefficient on-load.

A CPU with integrated graphics is a must. The graphics performance is irrelevant as long as it can achieve at least 4K 144Hz for desktop and video decoding (so that it won't ramp up CPU usage while watching 4K YouTube, for example).

I have a 4K 144Hz monitor. I am a Linux user dual-booting Windows for necessary games only.

Gaming is not a priority. I will mostly be doing web development, browsing the web with numerous tabs, watching videos, taking screen captures, and using remote desktop/gaming.

Things I mainly play: Train Sim World, Cities:Skylines, Forza Horizon; mostly simulation games. I rarely play Fortnite and similar games. I might also play some AAA titles, like Hogwarts Legacy and Cyberpunk, but I don't mind using medium-high settings and lower resolution with upscaling.

I previously had a PC with a 5900X (I was running VMs back then), an RTX 4070 12GB, and 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4 3,600MHz C16. I was fairly happy with the performance, except for the FPS, which was around 40-60 on the simulation games I listed. I would like to have a higher FPS on simulation games, but it's not critical.

For the motherboard, can it not have a PCH fan, please? :) If there has to be one, can it not run on idle? Additionally, a BIOS with good fan curve control that also allows for 0 RPM on case fans. 2.5G LAN and temperature probe are nice to have.

Regarding the GPU, I want to stay away from Nvidia if possible (they are being annoying nowadays, and have bad Linux support). But I still want low idle power and good streaming performance (remote gaming, low latency at 4K, using Sunshine). I've heard negative things about these aspects from the Radeon side, but I'm not sure if they've been resolved. If not, and if onboard graphics could handle video encoding/decoding just fine, would it make sense to use onboard graphics, maybe switching inputs when a game requires max performance? I am looking for something similar to or better than the RTX 4070. I would love to try Arc, but apparently, they don't have anything close to my performance expectations.

My budget is €1000-1500 and does NOT include case, fans, cooler, PSU, or storage. I am willing to overpay for CPU and motherboard for higher quality and future GPU upgrade, and I can buy a graphics card later, especially if Intel come up with something new. Gaming is not urgent. I am also fine with buying used stuff, so feel free to recommend something old gen, as long as it won't hurt future upgrades too much.

TLDR: I lean on 9070 XT but I am not sure about its idle power and low-latency 4K 144Hz video encoding-decoding. But maybe it is not a problem if I have a CPU with onboard graphics that can take care of that. Light-usage efficiency is the most important part. So I am looking for advice on choosing the right (mainly Intel) CPU, RAM, mobo combo that goes well with simulation games. I am also open to other GPU ideas.