You know, I can ask some one from the testing department. Chances are it was one of two people who over clocked the system. Get me the order number and I'll find out who did it. Now, they won't remember the system. That's just not possible, but they might be able to give you some advice on things to try to get a higher clock rate. Normally, it's because the chip will freeze, boot-loop, or hang on any higher OC settings. Or the chip exceeds heat requirements when over clocked. If it's the latter, you could push the chip further and enjoy stable use. However, that would result in a shorter life span for the chip. 

Well, Im 6458, and I appreciate it.

Im not worried about further OC'ing it in the immediate future, I really was just curious as to the specific reason my chip couldnt go higher. Im certainly not complaining as I dont consider a stable 540mhz increase minor, I guess I was just one of the guys that hoped for a bit more.

Perhaps a bit in the future I will invest in a TEC or LC solution and worry about that if its possible.

"Jealous of Ed's Overclock"

Oh God, don't say anything! Just keep quiet, and the urge will pass.....

Thats good to hear, and a good linked post. They've got mine equipped with the Freezer 7 Pro that you suggested in that post, I believe. I havent checked specs on it, yet, but I imagine I could probably just go ahead and do it with it running at higher temps. Its going to be a working machine, so I dont want to push the limits, I just want to add that stupid 60mhz so its a nice, pretty 3 haha.

I cant remember where the article was, but I seem to remember Thermalright having a major issue with unlevel heatsinks, the one tested had a millimeter difference between the middle and the edge. i think it was that cooler in specific but i cant remember. ill edit when i find the article.

most likely, in fact, i will do nothing and be extremely satisfied. what im most likely to do is find some kind of soft mod for the 9600 that eliminates the irritating fact that nvidia and ati intentionally limit the opengl capabilities of thier mainstream cards. this may be more of pain than its worth, though... easier than that is running Studio Max 9 in DirectX mode and utilizing all 4 cores of my processor while maximizing the practical functionality of my cards. but im a freeware nut and Blender is OpenGL extensive.

i dunno, i dont even have my computer yet. im cheap so i got the free shipping and have to ache for a few more days. that crysis demo is going to make me tear up most likely, as the last game i was playing was nwn2 with everthing on the lowest settings, at 800x600 and still running choppy.

Im not sure if this would have anything to do with the OC your getting,, but having 2x 9600 GT   would kinda heat that case up and in turn cause alot of heat in there,, maybe with all that heat, the CPU is getting caught up in all that and can't stay stable under stress??    I was just reading your post and saw your sig with the specs thats why I responded..