Hi,
I have only ever crashed to the desktop once and that was when I set mem to very high. I will admit that with aa on my fps drop 20+ to about on average 31 which is still fine but I don't think it is worth it.
As for sending my rig it cost me £550 to put together so I will take a rain check on that one ...
It is funny how this game works for some and not others. I would like to know bi's hardware as it would help in finding a common ground for everyone.
One last thing is that I do have the game install on its own hard drive and defrag often, as does my friend.
We both play for long periods of time, up to 8 to 9 hours at a time and we use skype to talk during it with no effects on the game.