Which would you prefer? Average home user....
You'd probably not go far wrong with either, but honestly - for "average home use" I'd go with the first one for the sake of having an all-SSD system. Yes, the second one might have slightly more future-proofing in terms of CPU and GPU, but in my opinion that's offset by having a having a mechanical hard drive sweating away in the box. The
slightly faster CPU isn't going to make a night-and-day difference and the entry level GPU should be more than adequate for "average home use".
Obviously, spending more gets you a better system in some ways, but unless you have a very specific technical requirement, overall performance depends on CPU
and GPU
and storage speed
and RAM size and its no use robbing Peter to pay Paul.
So, I'd either stick with the first model or try and scrape together another $170 or whatever to upgrade the second option to a 512GB SSD, too. Or, if you're up against a hard budget limit, maybe keep an eye on the Refurb store to see if you can get a better deal that way.
NB: it also depends a bit on how much storage you need. However, (a) 512GB goes a long way unless you're heavily into something like video editing or "pro" audio and (b) you're going to need external drive(s) for backup
anyway and there's a good argument for keeping media libraries, archives etc. on external drives or NAS (where they can be shared with other systems and won't have to leave the house if your non-user-serviceable computer has to go out for repair).
