cpu/ram upgrade vs. adding another video card to do sli?

[tdsounds]

I'm debating on upgrading my amd 3000 to an amd 3500 and replacing my 1gig corsiar valueselects to ocz platinum r2 to overclock my new chip to about 2.5ghz. I plan to take those parts to build my dad a computer so I won't be losing much for the parts I have. My brother says my performance of my current setup is being bottlenecked by my cpu. I was thinking screw all of the overclocking/upgrading and get me another 7800gt and do sli and my performance in gaming would be better. Am I wrong? What do you guys think?

Asus SLI Mobo
7800gt
amd3000
1gig corsair valuselects
gateway 21in lcd

 

[RussianSensation]

1) spending more money on faster timing ram is not worth it
2) get for total of 2 gigs of ram
3) get 7800GT. All of today's latest games are gpu bottlenecked. Call of Duty 2 and FEAR and BF2 will see great improvement from a 2nd videocard.
4) you can stil overclock your cpu just use a memory divider.

 

[tdsounds]

thanks for the reply, i'm gonna do some more research in overclocking what I have and add another vid card. Would a thermaltake CL-P0114 120mm Cooling Fan/Heatsink be good enough for cooling needs? I have a tsunami dream aluminum case with three fans and hoping that fan/heatsink combo would be enough.

 

[Elfear]

Originally posted by: tdsounds
thanks for the reply, i'm gonna do some more research in overclocking what I have and add another vid card. Would a thermaltake CL-P0114 120mm Cooling Fan/Heatsink be good enough for cooling needs? I have a tsunami dream aluminum case with three fans and hoping that fan/heatsink combo would be enough.

I'm not familiar with that heatsink but most of the Thermaltake products are pretty dumpy. Seems like the best bang for the buck heatsink out right now is the Thermalright XP-90. It performs within a few degrees of the top dogs and sells for ~$25 (good Panaflo fan is another $8). I've used that heatsink in a few builds and its worked really well.