Quote - Well i have a quad core intel extreme PC, and it just smokes- but running XP64 pro i find P7 to be VERY unstable- it crashes totally at random after deciding that whatever PZ3/cr2 im working on is unacceptable- then after a few days it forgets the taboo on that particular figure and i can use it again.

since this does not happen on my laptop with P7 and XP32 i can only assume it is the OS.  it's driving me friggin crazy

After 3 days of dicuss with some vendors and friends on a french forum, I heard exactly the same song. They all come to vista 64 in dual boot. Asking for the best config I could find for my limited means of money, we made a little test (not a real bench): A nice cat with very hairy coat under Lightwave:

• Intel QX9650 + 4Gb +W32 + 8800 ULTRA (the two tops in perf today):  quite 4 hours render (thats very fast) cost is here: 3500€. 
• for the same price: 2x (Intel Q6600+8G+V64+ 8800 simple) Ethernet nested: 1 and half hour render! cost: 2x1550€. 
  I think Lightwave "maps" the 16Gb (2x8) memory, I'm going to ask confirmation to some LW9 user, that I'm not. 
  We have just to wait from Sirs developpers they implement 64bytes on their dear products, but you should ask from MSDN if they have a roadmap for XP64.
  I am like everybody, I walk in darkness. Friendly, LocuSolus.