Please help me choose between these 2 systems?

[Adam1712]

Okay so i posted a few days ago about how this was my first time building a pc, i was told i did a great job in putting together the system for my first time and it was about as good as i was going to get for what i wanted with my budget, which is £750 can be pushed to £770 if need be... The system is going to be used for FFXIV primarily and then onto Crysis 2, DiRT3 etc... I am using a 1680 x 1050 monitor and would like mid level graphics to run smoothly... I dont want absolute max everything just so long as it looks nice and runs smooth. This is what i have had planned for a while now...

Case
PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE (£59)
Processor (CPU)
AMD PHENOM II X4 965 (3.40GHz/8MB CACHE/AM3) - BLACK EDITION
Motherboard
ASUS® M4A79XTD EVO: DUAL DDR3, S-ATA II, 2 x PCIe x16, 2 x PCIe x1, 2 x PCI
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
Graphics Card
1GB ATI RADEON™ HD 5770 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB CACHE (7,200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply & Case Cooling
CORSAIR 650W PSU (TX650) 80+ ULTRA QUIET (£76)
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£19)

This totals £750 and will give me room to slightly overclock the CPU and allow to to go crossfire in the future with a second 5770, however, for £2 less(This is irrelivent im just pointing out the near exact same price) i have just found i can build the following system...

Case
PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE (£59)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5-760 Quad Core (2.80GHz, 8MB Cache)
Motherboard
ASUS® P7H55-M SI: MICRO ATX VALUE MAINBOARD,USB 2.0 & SATA 3.0Gb/s
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX460 GDDR5 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB CACHE (7,200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply & Case Cooling
450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£29)
Processor Cooling
INTEL SOCKET LGA1156 STANDARD CPU COOLER

Now i have done enuogh to research to know that this 1Gig 460GTX will easily beat the 5770 in the original system, however i will be using stock cooling which wont allow an overclock, this isnt a problem because from what i read the i5-760 is a bit better than the 965BE anyway, and the differences will be minimal to me anyway. My main concern is wether the second system is such a solid build compared to the first one and wether you think it would be better to go for the 5770 crossfire in the future compared to the single 460GTX(which i wouldnt be able to Sli on the mb)

If it would be fair to say that i will be able to get mid level graphics smoothly out of FFXIV on a single 5770 then i think the first option is best, but please guys any help appreciated

 

[Meds]

Hey,

The second specification (Intel) is the best on paper if you were to compare like for like now, however the upgrade potential of your first specification is much better. As far as I am aware, the 5770 will run FFXIV on medium settings but not sure how much further you would be able to push it with a single card - OC the CPU and add another 5770 and you will be laughing The performance would also be better than the second specification - imo.

The second specification is very limited, and to be honest the 450W is the absolute minimum I would recommend for the GTX460 so any upgrade from this would require a new PSU also. Therefore spec 1 gets my vote!

 

[Gorman]

Now i have done enuogh to research to know that this 1Gig 460GTX will easily beat the 5770 in the original system, however i will be using stock cooling which wont allow an overclock, this isnt a problem because from what i read the i5-760 is a bit better than the 965BE anyway, and the differences will be minimal to me anyway. My main concern is wether the second system is such a solid build compared to the first one and wether you think it would be better to go for the 5770 crossfire in the future compared to the single 460GTX(which i wouldnt be able to Sli on the mb)

Beat a 5770? The 460 will brutalise the 5770 so badly that its grandchildren will have issues.

The stock cooler can be replaced when cash flow allows if you want to OC. The only draw back to this system is the inferior PSU.

If you can push it to the 600w mark or even better the original 650w than this one beats the AMD rig (in my eyes) hands down and for FF, its the better choice.