"Firstly, I had to deal with an INTEL freak.
Now here is someone with Nvidia written all over him"
I hope you aren't refering to me as the "INTEL freak" because if you are, you have no reading comprehension..
anyways, back on subject..
B$ is known to say nothing other then nvidia praises, backing his words up with nothing but a 10 year old maturity.
ok, now back on the real subject..
get a program called Motherboar monitor and find the sensor on your videocard and keep a close eye on it. ATI's are known to run hot, but the good thing is, they can take the heat.. my 9600 XT (built by ati) runs at 39-44c idle and around 48-55c onload, which is just fine.. i've heard people running their cards at 60+ even 70+ celcius with no failurs.. so if your running your card at 70+ celcius then you definitly need to consider new cooling devices..
also, did you have an onboard video controlor? if so.. did you disable it correctly? via jumpers, uninstall drivers, etc?