To continue my saga!

I have 2x8800GT cards in a xps730, 4gb ddr3, q9450, xfi extreme gamer, vista 32.

 

Since I bought the machine new it has been freezing - meaning a complete lock up where a reboot is the only option

 

The freezing occurs when playing games sometimes after 10minutes sometimes after 2 hours. I have ALL the latest DELL drivers installed, including the bios. I have noticed that in SLI the games lockup much quicker than non SLI, and also running dx9 seems to prolong the game play but with trying all these combinations it will eventually freeze. I have also the latest patchs installed for all the games I play.

 

I called tech support, they replaced my motherboard and graphics cards to see if they were the cause, it still freezes - no difference at all.

 

I have removed the sound card because people on the forum have suggested it may be a conflict - still freezes.

 

 Now all I want is a stable system! I have even installed nvidias latest gfx drivers (the version is more recent than Dells support page) this helps prolong the pain and freezing occurs after even longer periods, but the drivers conflict with the dell version of the extremegamer sound card.

 

 Dell support now tell me the only option is to do a complete reinstall of vista from the CD's supplied with my machine. My defence as to not doing that is when I bought the machine 1 month ago it froze on the first day when the only software I had installed was crysis and world in conflict (plus driver updates).

 

Now what can I do :(