Truthfully, I would go with the S&W 500 it it came down to the two alone.

The downfall to the either is you have to reload to really shoot them, since Factory ammo is going to kill your shooting budget really quick going that way.

As for the reason for the 500 over the 50, it all has to do with retaining brass to reload it.  The 500 is a wheel gun and when you done, you just open the cylinder, drop the brass into you shooting bag, and reload.  With the 50, you have to chase brass, and if you have priced it, a few lost cases is going to add up in dollars, not cents.

As for the recoil of the two, the 500 has a quick hard pulse, where as the 50 has a longer softer pulse stroke (gentle it is not) due to the slide recoil, but at the same time, the 50 softer recoils is longer, meaning that the gun moves way more in your hands (forget rapid fire on either).

Really, I have owned both pistols above (sold them off), it really all boils down to what the pistol can hit down range and is enjoyable to shoot for periods at a time.  Don't get me wrong, I still own a 44 DE just because (haven't have time to sell it), but spend more time shooting a 629 8' classic with 4x scope when I need to go hand cannon big and hit something at 100 yards.

To be blunt, the pistol that you are looking at is more of a bling unit than anything else, and would dare to guess that you will spent more time groping it, then shooting it.  Simply, unless you just have to have it collecting dust in the safe, would guess that you put less than 300 rounds through it before you sold it off at a loss (to buy a gun more enjoyable to shoot).

To wrap it up, if you are looking for a semi auto pistol as a new shooter, then pick something up in a 9mm to get used to shooting it.  About half the shooters out there can not shoot  something as simple as a 1911 (shooting a pistol with a moving slide), much less dare to go at it with a DE.  If you are going to go wheel gun, then something in a 357 to start with.  The reason for this is you can load 38 specials in it to get used to recoil in single/double action (actually hitting something), then step up to full loads in 357 once you get that down pat (read spend enough time shooting to get to the point that you can hit something with a pistol).  

Just food for thought,