Looking to upgrade a used gaming PC for my first project

Can anyone comment on the specs between these 2 used units. Both were previously gaming rigs. Which one is the better starting point for financially limited newbie?:

Memory: 8GB (Brand Unknown)
GPU: Calibre GeForce GT 520
CPU: AMD Athlon II Dual Core 3.2 GHz
Hard Drive: 140 GB
Motherboard: Biostar A770e3

vs

Memory: 4GB Upgradable (Brand Unknown)
GPU: ATI Radeon HD 3200 integrated graphics chip
CPU: AMD Phenom 9150e QUAD core 1.8 GHz (256 Mb shared)
Hard Drive: 500 GB
Motherboard: Unknown

I would probably say the first one because I'm guessing the second is a laptop and you cannot upgrade a laptop GPU.

Neither will be able to play any games past low/med so keep that in mind.

Calling either of those gaming rigs is being extremely generous. The first one could kludge through some games with a 7770 and a hard drive big enough to install some. It looks like that motherboad supports Phenom II's as well so that opens your options up some too. But that only puts you up to the level of an i3, and systems with those can be found fairly cheap new.

If you must then certainly the first one, the only thing you could possibly use from the second is the hard drive (and if it's 5400 rpm I wouldn't even suggest that) so it's not really a option.

To be honest neither is a great candidate to even to upgrade. If you have a decent case and power supply for the 1st though that would be a good start to build one on. What's you budget and maybe we can make some recommendations?

How much are looking to spend on these? I'm curious because you may be able to do a build for the price you are going to pay.

@Bringit2thepit

I just finished a build for my buddy that looks pretty similar to yours. Wondering how you like the processor? He's got the 4170, the 990fxa ud3, the same 8gigs of ram, but has a gigabyte 7870 and a 3tb HDD, 120gb ssd and 750w corsair modular PSU. Did you happen to get the CPU, MOBO, and Ram in the recent newegg sale for like $211?

I run a similar build with a FX8120, the 990fxa ud3, 8 gigs of Corsair vengeance, and a asus 7870 with a 2 tb hdd and 120 ssd and GS700 as my psu. Really like my system so far as well, but just finished it in September so we will see with time.