Two possible builds -- which one should I pick?

[xcylent]

I'm having a little competition with a friend, we both made a list of specs to build a gaming rig for ~$1400.

The place of purchase is www.pccasegear.com

If you feel like it, please look through the builds, then vote on which one you think is better!

Build 1: Tom's rig

Build 2: Nick's rig


This is super duper important, so any votes would be highly appreciated

 

[cliffordcooley]

Hard choice when you would vote for specific parts in either build.

I don't think I would spend $140 dollars on a 550W PSU, but yet that build is the one with the BD-R drive.

 

[slh28]

I vote for the first one.
The second one has some strange choice of components, I.e. a $145 mobo and a $75 cooler to go with a non-overclockable i5 3570. That Bitfenix case doesn't have great airflow either.

In both cases I'd go for a 2x8GB RAM kit rather than 4x4GB.