1. I downloaded digital river installer of Win 7 x 64 Pro.
Downloaded what exactly? You installed a downloaded version of win 7, possibly a non legit one at that?
5. Didn't d/l mobo drivers, just nVidia latest Graphics Beta. Enabled nVidia Surround Mode
:doh always start with mobo drivers :doh
12. Then it was repairing taking forever-----> pushed reset.
:doh Just 1 easy step at trashing your OS :doh
Is this a game settings or a Windows 7 or Surround Issue?
The way you describe, id say its the OS thats at fault.. go back , backup your data, format the drive, and start again from fresh, this time, try actualy installing your drivers and doing updates as the game will rely on them updates and drivers you failed to install to make your pc stable :doh
CPU
Q6600 @ 3.48GHz Motherboard
Here you are overclocking the CPU, I used to have a Q6600 and a Nvidia chipset motherboard so I know exactly what it is like to overclock them, they are picky and take ages to get a stable clock, specially at that speed. Remove your overclock before installing windows PLEASE!! If you have a unstable overclock, and you install windows and then half the system files will end up corrupt.
Dont ever overclock untill you have windows installed, all drivers installed and all updates applied.
SLI EVGA 480 + Zotac 480
Is there enough cooling and power on the PSU to drive these?
There is a number of issues I see here with your rig, so its no surprise that games and its self are crashing.
Try again without the overclock first.