i do have the eco edition thing...its not nice

This is your rig:
Intel C2Q Q8200 @2.33Ghz
Intel DG35ec mobo
kingston 4gb ram
Nvidia 9800GT
500gb WD caviar green
80gb seagate barracuda
cooler master 500W eXtreme power plus PSU(bought it this morning)

Your rig is a beast, play at 1280x1024 AAX2 all high settings, and use XP. For a 9800gt, its best to use XP/dx9. Windows 7 or Vista is really demanding and requires you have to high end video cards to fully take advantage of the OS.

Geez General,
1) you call everybody's rig a beast. The fact is that his rig is not "a beast" (no offense Davidoff)
2) your advice is for him to take two generations and 10 years of OS and DX capabilities backwards???
3) if you paid attention to his post, you would see that he desires or is trying to game at (probably his monitors native resolution) of 1680 x 1050. Resolution is rather an important question to at least ask.

4) yeah that's not true. its a few frames difference and usually favors Vista and 7. http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/windows_7_gaming_performance/default.asp
you will notice they did a round of benches with a card very similar to Davidoffs.

@ Daividoff, to accomplish what you want with Crysis and similarly demanding games you are going to need more GPU.....or cowbell if you are okay with DX10 for now, cards such as an ATI HD 4870 or an Nvidia GTX 260 will work. If you value DX11 a ATI HD 5770 will work.
hope that helped

dude, 26 frames is fine for a 9800gt at that resolution.

Crysis is a very demanding game. It puts alot of strain on even some of the newest video cards out there.