I am new to the AK area and I was thinking about picking up a SAR-1 or a Izhmash Arsenal Ak-47

The price diffrence is only $70 so which one is the better of the two?
any thing for newbees to know about either before picking up one.?

 I am assuming the Izhmash has been converted to military trim.  So the quality of the conversion has to be judged.  Some have been done well, some not.
 Are these rifles at a shop where you can see them or are you talking mail order?
 If you can lay hands and eyes on them check for overall straightness. The SAR 1 will have the correct method of assembly, the other may have welds were there should be rivets.  Hopefully if you pet them enough one of them will speak to you and all technical considerations will be made trivial.

the IZHMASH rifle is a hesse/vulcan conversion........stay away from it, the ones I have seen look as if a retard metal class did the welding on it....which is probably not far from the truth, seeing that hesse products are nothing but botched abortions.