You would not believe how hard it is to get this thing into orbit. The fuel tolerances are kind of low, it also doesn't help that I have to get the lander off of the engine before I can finish getting to orbit. I'll have to make a video of sending it to orbit sometime.
Here's something old to throw in the time capsule. Note: This picture is from before the mines were removed from the dark side of Kerbin. IIRC, the ship pictured was capable of sending a command pod and SAS on an escape trajectory and return the pilots to Kerbin.
Pretty sure this is the best reply in the entire thread. At least, it's the only one that got any response out of me positive, or negative. (To be clear, I liked this statement)
As far as RAM goes, get the cheapest 2x4GB kit out there, brand-wise, RAM is RAM and speed above 1333MHz doesn't do a thing unless you are using an APU. Even recording while playing KSP with an insane amount of mods isn't using close to my 8GB. (I have enough mods that KSP alone is over 1 GB) It's easy enough to add more if you find you need it since most motherboards will support 4 sticks.
If you aren't also rendering, just get an i5 series processor, it's the same thing as the i7 just without hyperthreading, which in every game out right now means it will perform exactly the same. Get a k series if you want to overclock (make sure the motherboard supports overclocking too). Although the AMD 6300 is a decent comparison to the i5 in the current generation. As for the graphics cards, you are comparing two cards that are something like $200 apart. Of course the the 7970 is going to be just insane compared to the 7770. I have a 7850 (kind of a happy medium between the two) and it works great in KSP while letting me also plow through more intensive games without issues.
I typically have a scene loading time of about 5 seconds, then again, I'm usually using FRAPS, I have so many mods KSP uses about 2GB of RAM, takes 3 minutes to start, and my ships are rarely under 150 parts.