ATI 4850 card, buy now, or wait

I have been helping my friend pick out parts for a computer build sometime around July. Right now we have a system figured out and the video card that is our current pick is on sale with 12% off additional until May 17th. Should we buy now or do you think there will be a better deal in July when we he actually orders parts. I felt like its kind of on the edge so I thought I would ask for more opinions.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102824

Also since there is a lot of time before he actually buys, any suggestions are welcome, here is what is important:


- <$600 (case, psu, mobo, RAM, CPU, HD, videocard, optical), must be able to last ~3 years without requiring major upgrades

- must be able to run the estimated specs for Champions Online, Diablo III, and Star Wars: The Old Republic (best guesses, as none of these are published or even necessarily finalized yet)

- will be running XP until Windows 7 comes out

- for the moment we are fairly set on an Antec 300 case for decent cooling, and a 500Watt PC Power & Cooling power supply, but still open to other suggestions.

Thanks for the help in advance

I'm the friend who is building the computer. I'm mostly looking for something that will be able to play a few games I'm excited about that are coming out this year or next. None of them are Crysis or amazingly graphically intensive games, they should run just fine on a mid-range PC.

I'd like to clarify right now that I am not a graphics junkie by any means. Some of my favorite games have appallingly simple graphics. The primary reason I play games is for storytelling and fun, not to look at something pretty. The videocard doesn't need to run games blazingly fast, 40 fps on these games would be more than sufficient. They need to run, not hurt my eyes from choppy graphics and if they happen to look good at the same time, that's a bonus. (Playing Hellgate: London on my MacBook was a bit of a headache at times when my framerate went choppy and it certainly wasn't ever pretty.)

The monitor has a native resolution of 1680x1050. Right now it's hooked up to my wife's Mac Mini (which will be moved to the TV).

I've got a budget of $600 for those eight components. Keyboard, mouse, monitor and speakers (headphones, actually) are already taken care of. My preference is to run an AMD chipset just because I've historically had bad luck with Intel aside from my MacBook. That preference could be overridden by a better value proposition.

If "Bang for the Buck" is the major concern, I'd say go for an AMD-based build then.

I recommend a socket AM2+ motherboard with the 790GX chipset paired with the SB750 southbridge. There are quite a few to choose from in the ~$100 range, and they should all provide any option you may desire, and then some. The main reason I'd go with AM2+ over AM3 is that AM3 has yet to truly add any significant enhancement over AM2+, with the sole exception being DDR3 support. When AM3 adds more than that (could be later this year, or whenever the RD8XX northbridge is finally released), then I'd consider an AM3 motherboard. Til then, AM2+ w/ DDR2 is still plenty fast enough for both today and tomorrow. Also note that with any 790-based chipset, you'll have full CrossfireX support for future dual-graphics card upgradge consideration.

Now, you can still use the newest Phenom II socket AM3 processors in an AM2+ motherboard, such as the Phenom II X3 720, X4 945, or X4 955, so long as the BIOS of the board supports them. The 720 Black Edition ($140 at Newegg) offers excellent performance for it's price, and it usually overclocks quite well should you ever need a little added performance. If you desire a quad, the 955 ($245 at Newegg) is almost as fast as an Intel Core i7 in some tests, and faster in a few as well.

For video, a 4850 should suit your needs. However, it should be noted that the 4770 ($90-110) is right on the heels of the 4850 in many performance comparisons, and it's a few bucks cheaper. It also uses far less power, which leaves plenty of room for overclocking the card. When overclocked even slightly, any gaps between it's performance and the 4850's start to disappear. If you went with a 4770, you'd have a few bucks left over to improve something else, such as HD capacity, CPU cooler, more/better memory, or whatever else you might want.

I am personally considering a very similar build/upgrade for myself, and as such, have been researching these and other similar and even more powerful items a lot recently. Seeing as I prefer more detail in many of the games I play, I'm more prone to go with an AM2+ 790FX/SB750 motherboard, 4GB of DDR2-1100/1200 RAM, and a Phenom II 955 with a single 4890, leaving me the option to add either another 4890 (or perhaps even two more) in the future for more graphics performance.