If you were me, what would you be purchasing right now? I am willing to go over this $1,500 limit if necessary for a long-lasting system. (FWIW I’ll be selling my Series X (unused), Steam Deck, as well as maybe my PS5 and all the games that go with it to fund this. I can just use my brother’s PS5 if I wanna play something like Astro…which is literally the only game I can think of wanting to play on PlayStation that’s not on PC.)

All I want is a PC that can comfortably last me 10y, that can be upgraded gradually to up-to-date with modern gen releases (for at least the next decade; specifically, if a solid PlayStation game releases, I would like to have it running well on my PC whenever it’s ported over), and is good at emulating any game from any system pre-2012.

Since you have a budget in mind, the biggest questions that will decides the parts of your build are:1) Will you use the PC for something else other than gaming? 2) What is the resolution/refresh rate of your monitor? Or is that also part of your build?

In any case, since you want a computer that can be used for a long time with the option to be upgraded, your only course of action right now is going with an AMD AM5 motherboard and CPU.

I’d be open to purchasing a monitor which fits whatever PC I purchase. Though it would be nice to run games on my TV, if that’s something you can do with a PC? (Link to TV.)

Something similar to this should suffice. Upgrade the GPU and SSD whenever needed. 

I imagine it would be even cheaper if you have time to build it yourself. 

You can connect a PC to a TV with no problem at all. Just a regular HDMI cable will work.

The system NyanNyanNekoChan has shared is good, but for a 4K TV, I'd put more budget on the GPU and less on the CPU (at that resolution your PC will be limited by the graphics cards and a modest CPUs will deliver almost the same experience as more expensive ones in most games as a site called Hardware Unboxed proved recently in a video (link), and here is the same but in written format (link)).

I'd try to upgrade the GPU from a 9060XT to a 9070XT or Nvidia 5070Ti and downgrade the CPU to a more modest 7600X or the 7700X if you prefer having an 8-core CPU insted of a 6-core one. But I don't know how are prices over there.

Please be aware that if you go with a bigger GPU, you'll need to also change the power supply to one with 850W to be safe.

I would recommend getting a monitor with lower resolution. Running 4K above, or even at, 60 fps is tough. If you lower the resolution further, with that panel size and aspect ratio, the image will look pretty bad. On my 42" monitor, even 1080p video looks pretty bad most of the time due to pixel density and a fairly large panel (I also sit quite close). Games can look okay-ish in 1440p, but it's far from optimal. I'd recommend 1440p, or perhaps a 3440x1440 - even the latter option is much more forgiving on hardware specs. Even with a good 3440x1440 panel and a rig that can run games well on it, you'll be miles off the cost of a fully 4K-capable PC (even when the TV is already paid and owned). 

Building a proper 4K-capable gaming PC for 1500$ is a tough ask. 

I find myself having trouble running a lot of newer games in 4K myself, in spite of some pretty juicy specs (as in; a lot more than 1500$ of goods). 

It's not the specs that matter but the RGB

Yeah you can connect your PC to the TV via HDMI.
Though keep in mind that PC monitors focusing on gaming tend to have lower latency and higher refresh rates than TV's that might focus more on movies, where those things aren't as important.

That TV has a refresh rate of 120 hz, which is fine and the lowest I'd go for when the budget of your PC is $1500+.
That means your TV will only display up to 120 fps. If your game runs higher than that you won't be able to see any visual improvements above 120fps.

I can't find the latency of that TV, but lower is better, since higher latency will make the time between you pressing a button and you seeing it happening on screen feel like it takes longer. A.k.a. it may feel laggy.

I guess my main question is, is there a game where you know the resolution/framerate you would like to play at?

For example, I would want to play FF7 Rebirth at no lower than 60fps and 1080p, at High settings.
It's a demanding game, so such a setup can run a lot of other games at those settings but at 1440p.

For GPU I would recommend either the RX 9060 XT (16 GB version) or the RX 9070 XT (16 GB).
But the price difference between them is nearly double.

Around Black Friday you should be able to find some good deals on them,a nd all your other PC parts.

You'll want to look into how they differ for games you are interested in.
And it'll depend on what kind of resolution you want to play on.

But here's Cyberpunk at 1440p Ultra settings to give you an idea of the difference.

You can also turn on DLSS (FSR) and Frame Generation for increased performance. But they are all Off for this test.

Also, are you planning to build the PC yourself?
That would save you a significant amount of money. I built my first PC with no experience a few years ago by just following the instructions of a few Youtube tutorials, and it went just fine. 

This might sound weird. But if the rumors are true and the next XBOX will be essentially a PC for about Eur 1000, this could be an option if indeed it will have access to other stores like Steam. If e.g. you're a bit anxious of building and upgrading parts (I would).

If you create pc now you won't play next gen games.
Wait playstation 6 release to see specs and create a pc that can handle it if you want it to last many years.