ChatGPT vs DeepSeek: which AI can build me a better gaming PC?

pcgamer.com:

DeepSeek, the new Chinese AI chatbot, has had a major effect on the AI landscape (and the stock market) thanks to how efficient it is, and the fact it's open source. However, as someone who cares more about PC gaming and how the AI can work for me, I decide to test it only way I knew how, by testing its PC building advice.

I thought it apt to compare whatever a free user would get with both chatbots. That's DeepSeek R1 and ChatGPT 4o/4o mini. Though for the record, ChatGPT has a new and improved o1 model in the works, which DeepSeek claims comparative performance to, it's just not available yet. As well as this, DeepSeek's R1 model requires an internet connection and needs to be activated, so many first-time users will actually be using the older model.

With my two AI friends (foes?) at hand, I sought some buying advice. My first question: Can you build me a gaming PC for $1000?

First using ChatGPT's 4o mini model and DeepSeek (without R1 reasoning), both recommended an RTX 30-series graphics card in response. That's not a good graphics card to buy in 2025, so that's a bad start on both counts. There's almost no reason to go back to the RTX 30-series these days, especially when you aren't really making any savings from retailers compared to newer cards. Perhaps if you found a scorcher of a deal you could justify this decision, but it's not good advice for an AI to give you. It's essentially saying: 'Hope for a miracle!'

Both AI recommended a Ryzen 5 chip, a B550 motherboard, 16 GB of DDR4 RAM, and 1 TB of SSD storage. Though ChatGPT recommended a Kingston NV2 (for shame), which is an infamously inconsistent SSD. While altogether quite reasonable, they're pretty basic picks.

But I'm yet to activate DeepSeek's secret weapon. Its reasoning model, which requires an internet connection, and gives the model time to 'think'. With this, DeepSeek became a bit more impressive. This is still a free model, by the way, it's just not activated when you first boot the chatbot.