First, the good news: The problem you have has NOTHING (directly) to do with RTW.

Now the bad news: it is a hardware problem, assuming you are already running current, stable drivers for your system and video card (I'm sure you are, since you are a gamer).

The odds (my estimate) are more than 90% than you have one or both of these problems:

1. Heat.

2. Power supply.

First, make sure your case, fans, heatsink, and power supply (PS) are completely clean (no dust, lint, etc. buildup). You need to open your case to check it. If you are not expereinced with PCs, or are using someone else's machine (e.g., parents or siblings), do NOT do this on your own, since you might break something. Get help, then check and clean it (compressed air works well to blow dust out).

If the machine is filthy with dust, you 80% sure have your problem solved when you clean it properly. But if is is not, then you need to determine the exact chip, according to the identity string of manufacture, the motherboard (the model and PCB revision number on the MB itself), all peripherials (eg., hard disks, DVD drives, RAM, etc.). You need to determine the exact powersupply (PS) output characteristics, e.g., voltage and amps on the 12 volt and 5 volt rail, and what the PS can supply SIMULTANEOUSLY. You then need to match it against the power consumption of your hardware. Many people run PSs that cannot adequately power their system, especially if overclocked (I assume you are not OCing).

As a general rule of thumb, if you have a newer (year or two old) power supply rated at about 380 watts or more, then you are fine with one or two hard drives in a standard mid tower, running the (relatively low power) FX5200.

You then need to look at the temperatures in your case and on your CPU; hopefully, you have a recent MB with sensors built in. If you want to be assured of good operation in an otherwise servicable chip, try and keep the CPU at or below about 52 C, when run at 100% duty cycle (full load -- use CTRL-ALT-DEL in XP and click the Performance tab to see).

Likewise, the graphic card can be running hot (you may need to cool it with better airlflow or even custom fans). Youcan also position your PC case to get better airflow to its vents, and it can cool the case and CPU by 10 C or more, if you had your case crammed in a corner devoid of free, cool airflow.

This post could get very long, but basically if you don't feel comfortable in opening your case and knowing exactly what to touch, how much compressed air is enough but not too much, what 24A on the 12V rail means, etc., then get a friend to help, or be prepared to spend a couple hours googling (try browsing hardware and overclocking forums for powersupply and cooling HOWTOSs) and learning about this. Your time won't be wasted, as heat and power supplies are the number one cause of system instability, and the knowledge will serve you for years to come.

In SUMMARY, your description is the exact, classic symptom set of heat/power supply problems. If you KNOW your have a rock solid powersupply (like the TruBlue 480W, e.g.), then your problem can be narrowed to heat (fans, chips, dust, heatsinks, video card, CPU, RAM).

PS, Your description can also be indicative of a few other things; but if you know terms like CAS and Latency, and how to adjust them manually in BIOS, I assume you would not have posted here . But if you did or ever have messed with your BIOS settings, try returning them to "Optimal" (Most Award and AMI BIOS gives you that generic option, which is conservative, not "aggressive").