job314 Good point! About the shrinking factor: the anisotropic shrinking factor in CRYSTAL does not work properly for those calculations where the symmetry of the system may change (for instance in frequency calculations, FREQCALC, where displaced nuclear configurations are explored, or elastic calculations, ELASTCON, where the lattice is strained, etc.). So in general, I personally tend to avoid using an anisotropic shrinking factor.
However, for symmetry-preserving calculations (such as SCF, OPTGEOM, EOS) the use of an anisotropic shrinking factor should be fine.