Which gaming pc to pick?

[cmking]

im going to buy a gaming pc from ibuypower. ( yes yes i know i can save money doing it my self but i dont want to)
my first pick is

Processor
Intel® Core™ i7 3820 Processor (4x 3.60GHz/10MB L3 Cache) - Intel Core i7 3820
Processor Cooling
Corsair Hydro Series H60 Liquid CPU Cooling System - Standard 120mm Fan
Memory
16 GB [4 GB X4] DDR3-1600 Memory Module - Corsair or Major Brand - FREE Upgrade to G.Skill Ripjaws
Video Card
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 - 2GB - EVGA FTW - Core: 1084MHz - Single Card
Video Card Brand
Major Brand Powered by AMD or NVIDIA
Motherboard
Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 -- 4x PCI-E x16, 6x SATA 6Gb/s
Power Supply
750 Watt - Thermaltake TR2 TRX-750M Free Upgrade to 850 Watt W0319RU ($20 Savings)
Primary Hard Drive
60 GB ADATA S511 SSD - Single Drive - FREE Upgrade to 120GB ADATA S510
Data Hard Drive
500 GB HARD DRIVE -- 16M Cache, 7200 RPM, 6.0Gb/s - Single Drive

or

Processor 1 x AMD FX-8150 CPU (8x 3.60GHz/8MB L2 Cache)-
iBUYPOWER PowerDrive 1 x PowerDrive Level 1 - Up to 10% Overclocking-
Processor Cooling 1 x Corsair Hydro Series H60 Liquid CPU Cooling System-ARC Dual Silent High Performance Fan Upgrade (Push-Pull Airflow)
Memory 1 x 16 GB [4 GB X4] DDR3-1600 Memory Module-G.Skill Ripjaws X
Video Card 1 x AMD Radeon HD 7970 - 3GB-Single Card
Motherboard 1 x Gigabyte GA-970A-D3 -- AMD 970-
Power Supply 1 x 750 Watt - Thermaltake TR2 TRX-750M-Free Upgrade to 850 Watt W0319RU ($20 Savings)
Primary Hard Drive 1 x 120 GB Corsair Force Series GT SSD-Dual 120GB Drives (240GB Capacity) - RAID 0 High Performance
Data Hard Drive 1 x 500 GB HARD DRIVE -- 16M Cache, 7200 RPM, 6.0Gb/s-Single Drive

tthe first one is about 500$ cheaper but im just not to sure if the first one is better or not. im not very good with computers and what not just miss pc gaming and want a good pc for the years to come

 

[Supernova1138]

Try looking for a system with an Intel Core i5/i7 2xxx or Intel Core i5 3450/3570k or Core i7 3770k. The 3820 is on a much more expensive platform that won't offer you any real benefits in gaming. LGA 2011 and its CPUs (Core i7 3820, 3930k, and 3960x) are meant more for workstations than home systems. You can save a large chunk of that $500 by getting a cheaper intel CPU.

I wouldn't touch AMD CPUs for gaming right now. The FX CPUs are only really good for certain productivity applications that can use the higher core count. AMD has ceased to seriously compete with intel in the high performance CPU space, so there isn't much sense in buying into an AMD platform. AMD CPUs will still perform okay for the most part, but if you can afford intel, go that route, your system will last longer that way.

On the intel side the i5s are also better value than the i7s, as very, very few games benefit from having an i7.

As for graphics, both systems listed have good cards, though the GTX 670 performs similarly to the stock 7970 and is available cheaper generally. You can also get away with 8GB of RAM if you are looking to cut costs. 16GB and up are really only needed for certain productivity software, and won't benefit you while gaming.

I would recommend getting a 120GB SSD if you are going to get an SSD at all. 60GB will work, but you will have to watch your disk space and run disk cleanups regularly. 120GB gives you more headroom and may even allow you to install a game or two on the SSD if you are really impatient about loading times. Depending on how many games you have, you may want to get a hard drive larger than 500GB. I have a 1TB drive for games, and it can't even hold my entire collection at one time. If you have lots of games, get a larger hard drive.

Closed loop liquid CPU coolers are also not strictly necessary and are only beneficial if you plan on doing heavy overclocking, and the Corsair H60 included on both systems isn't that great a cooler.

All that said, if you had to pick from the two you present., the first one is better, though probably not to the extent that it justifies the $500 price premium. Like I said, look for the cheaper quad core Intel CPUs, they'll do the same job as the 3820 for a lot less money.

 

[iamcacao]

Have to agree with supernova 100%. That's the problem with buying computer, you usually can't get exactly what you want and they cost 2x more than they should. Look for something with an SSD, i5 2xxx and 8gb of ram, you will notice no difference in gaming from the above mentioned builds yet it will easily save you 100s of bucks

 

[cmking]

Best answer selected by cmking.