Help me choose between two builds

Hello,

It's not about who wants which system here: you have to understand that you have to buy whatever suits your needs best and I'll try to keep it relatively simple so you can decide for yourself.

If you have a 1080p screen, you will not need anything more than a 970 to max the game out but if you're running a 1440p panel, you may find that with that card, some games dip in the 30 fps (frame per second) range and that may or may not be fine according to your tolerances. Some people will not accept even 55fps and that's fine when some are just as happy with their game running at 30fps.

Second, you have to consider future upgrades as the PC world is an ever-evolving one and you may also find gaming quite addictive and when that happens, you will want more performance out of your system. Note also that going for a lesser card and SLI-ing it later (running two of them in one system) isn't recommended as the performance doesn't scale well in some games and other straight up cannot run on 2 cards and will on just one. You should go for the single higher end card and since pricing is close between the 2 builds, you can here. That is assuming you will upgrade you PC.

Going for the second build is a wiser choice if you are planning to SLI the GTX970 in the future to be able to cope with new games as those are getting more and more demanding and if you want to overclock you CPU to squeeze the very last ounce of performance out of it: something to consider as games now are using more of a CPU's capabilities than ever and you will benefit form a higher frequency chip like a K-SKU CPU (unlocked multiplier).

The first build on the other hand will be better suited if you have a 1440p panel and think you are going to need that much performance and play demanding games at that resolution. It has another advantage: the 980 will soon drop in price so if you ever need to SLI it it will not be as expensive in a year or so than it is now so this is an important factor to consider.

If you want my advice, don't buy any of them... XD. But really, I would save some more and put the GTX 980 in the second build as it will benefit from a CPU that can be overclocked a fair bit in the future when game are more demanding. That is if you have a 1440p panel and if you will really get into gaming. However, if you just want to buy a gaming machine for now, you can put the GTX 970 in the first build and run every game just fine at 1080p and if you think you will not do that much gaming.

I hope this can help you decide which build to modify and buy and also, I hope it's not too long... because writing a short answer for this is skipping some really important things to consider. Also do not hesitate to contact me if you need more advice because I know I haven't covered all the pros and cons of the 2 builds and I haven't been in-depth about the type of person these builds will suit well. I do not know what monitor you have so I mentioned both options here.