the 4x1gb was cause of the price, once it comes down I'll swap out for 4x4gb 1333's. Iv'e actually clocked one system with 4x1gb hyperx 1066's to 1200 with no issues at all though.

The price difference between an ssc and the regular one was $20 or so, no worried about it. Usually, factory oc'ed cards do get the better performing tested hardware. Well, at least they used to.

My power supply is an MGE MGE500WP, 27.5 Amps off the 12V rails, 38.5 off the 5V's. I'm reasonably sure it'll handle it.

I have an MSI 8800GT Factory Overclocked.
I don't really overclock much since the last time I overclocked something I fried my poor Voodoo3 3000. My Corsair 550watt is an excellent powersupply for anyone who wants a stable PSU that won't burn your house down and doesn't need a Refrigerator Outlet to run.

The box says 400 minimum, but it also wants 22 amps on the 12v. By the time you run a big enough CPU and fans and all that good stuff, I'm thinking a solid 500W supply. That's what I've got, and I'm not positive it'll be enough. My video card showed up bad so I've got EVGA cross shipping me another. We shall see.

5 FPS is nothing to complain about. I generally like to keep my games around the 30-45 fps mark so that when it does chug it stays above the magic 12-15 fps which the human eye can see. 5 FPS would mean a notch higher res and/or view distance. My 9600 GT SSC is clocked at 740/1950 instead of the typical 650/1800, but when you look at it, that's about a 15% overclock. That's not bad at all for data throughput. I'm not saying everyone should go out and OC their system, I don't on my new one. My previous computer, however, managed a solid 10% overall OC and that was felt in games.

As for power supply, I agree, one should never skimp there. A underperforming power supply can cause the system to be unstable, especially under load, and can even damage the computer. Going overkill is good, if it's in your budget. Keep in mind that alot of manufacturers will rate a supply at an output it can peak at for a couple of seconds and not necessarily at one that can be sustained. This is fine for typical PC users who almost never peg out the whole system simultaneously, but gaming not only pegs a system out, but hold it there constantly so you'll need a supply that can handle that type of duty cycle.

An easy way to tell a good supply from a cheap one is the weight. A supply that can handle sustained high load operation will have large heat sinks, rails, coil, and/or capacitors, and those weigh quite a bit. Good brands too look fore include Sparkle/SPI, Antec, MGE, Lian-Li, Sunon, and many others. Beware the $20 500W special, a good supply costs, and if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

well i have 8800 ultra 750 power supply quad 6600 4 gig ram and i still get the average fps 20-30 all with high and the tweak and 1280x 1024 i think something is wrong or?

2.4 i really have no clue whats the problem is i have artifacts like stripes onto the screen and the computer is turning itself off after it has had that a while. I have changed the power supply though i think the problem is the graphic card!

84 degrees when playing crysis Yaaaack!

video card = graphic card?