From which parts in Hackintosh builds could you always deviate without having to change anything about the configuration?

[playerslayer123]

let's say you have an installation of Ventura or Catalina, I assume easily changable parts that don't require any patches or so would be the Case and PSU as long as they meet the size and power requirements. Anything else?

 

[trs96]

Anything else?

Power cord. That's about it. The CPU, SSD, graphics card, Wifi all have to be macOS compatible with the specific version of the OS you're running.

 

[playerslayer123]

Power cord. That's about it. The CPU, SSD, graphics card, Wifi all have to be macOS compatible with the specific version of the OS you're running.

oh, okay
even the RAM?

 

[frontgear]

oh, okay
even the RAM?

RAM should be OK.

 

[Edhawk]

RAM should be OK.

As long as your new motherboard and CPU stay within the same Memory series, i.e. don't expect DDR3 (Haswell and older) to work on a DDR4 board (Skylake and newer), and the same goes for DDR4 in a newer DDR5 system (Intel 700 series board).

You might also want to take into account that the memory speeds will have been increased as newer boards/chipsets and CPU's are released. So for example DDR4 2133MHz or 2400MHz RAM from a Skylake or Kaby Lake system will work in a Coffee Lake or Comet Lake system, it just won't be close to the speed achievable with newer RAM, i.e. 3600MHz+.

If you are looking to upgrade from the Coffee Lake system in your User Profile to a newer system, then include costs for RAM, CPU, Motherboard and NVMe drive(s). A compatible discrete GPU will be essential for any system newer than a 10th Gen Comet Lake system, as that was the last Intel chipset to be supported in macOS. Any system after the Comet Lake requires the IGPU to be disabled and the discrete GPU to undertake all the graphics processing, using the SMBIOS for an iMac1,1 or MacPro7,1.