Computer Freezing Constantly (weekly)

Hey there. So basically, as the thread title states, my PC has plagued me with freezing issues pretty much since I built it last year. I have narrowed down the issue to a few possible causes, but I seem to be unable to fix said issue.

90% of the time, when it freezes the video card is in use, in some form or another -- playing games, working on art (ZBrush), etc -- the other 10% is seemingly random, watching videos, using Google Hangout, browsing the net.

Given that most of the time the freezing happens whist the video card is in use, I figured it must be an issue with said card. So, of course I have updated all of my drivers multiple times over the last year, and by all, I feel quite certain I mean all, mobo, vid card, bios, the whole gamut.

Sometimes I have felt like these have helped, only to be denied a solution when the computer inevitably freezes again.

While doing research on my issue I've come across advice that mentions over heating, power supply failure, etc. I don't think it's a heat issue, since I clean the inside of my computer regularly, and look at the temperatures of my devices right after the freeze. My card is usually never more than 50 degrees, often times hovering in the 40's while in use. It can spike here and there, as graphics cards do, but consistently, after crashes, the temps are well within safe limits.

I also don't think that it is the power supply due to the fact that sometimes, while listening to audio, it will continue to play whatever it was playing, be it game music on loop, internet stream, or even iTunes. Granted when said songs or audio is finished playing it wouldn't play the next track, but if it was a power supply issue, wouldn't the whole system simply fail to respond at all? Or even shut right down?

What I have noticed happening lately is that right before it crashes I get these very short warnings. The system will come to an absolutely crawl, things (buttons and the like) will stop responding, and then the mouse cursor stops and that's it.

This all takes about ... 5 to 10 seconds, at most.

Another issue that I've read it could be is the ram. In this I can not say one way or the other if that is the case, I simply haven't gotten around to sufficiently testing said ram. I've read that it can take hours upon hours, and I simply don't have the time -- yes I realize that if it WAS the ram and I fixed it that would inevitably save me more time, but humans tend to live in the now ... lol

And lastly, one of my internal HDD's IS in a state of failure, I am in the process of getting a new one, but there are things on it that I need to access regularly which is why I don't remove it. I realize as well what a huge risk this is for my data, but that is my risk to take... lol (Not being confrontational, just laying out the facts) -- the reason I bring up the HDD for, is because I am unsure if whether this could be a cause? I don't feel like it would be, simply because I have had this issue well before it was failing, but I am far from an expert so I can't say for certain.

And finally, I will attach my system specs in an hour or so, I am just writing this post from my mac while my system restarts... I am tired of this shit, to be honest, and have finally taken the plunge to ask people smarter than me for help.

Hopefully my cry doesn't go unheard.

Thank you kindly!! And my sincere apologies for the massive post. I just figured I would lay out as much information as possible so that we are all on equal footing.

Cheers!

EDIT: Here are my system specs. Let me know if you need more detailed information on any of these. Copied from Speccy.

Operating System
Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit

CPU
Intel Core i7 3770K @ 3.50GHz 31 °C
Ivy Bridge 22nm Technology

RAM
32.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 799MHz (10-10-10-27)

Motherboard
ASRock Z77 Extreme4 (CPUSocket) 31 °C

Graphics
VW246 (1920x1080@60Hz)
Intel HD Graphics 4000 (ASRock)
1023MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Gigabyte) 30 °C

Storage
465GB Western Digital WDC WD5000AAKS-00UU3A0 (SATA) 32 °C
465GB Western Digital WDC WD5000AAKS-00UU3A0 (SATA) 30 °C
465GB Western Digital WDC WD5000AAKS-65YGA0 (SATA) 31 °C
298GB Seagate ST3320620AS (SATA) 35 °C
931GB Western Digital WD Ext HDD 1021 USB Device (USB (SATA)) 32 °C

Optical Drives
ATAPI iHAS424 A

Audio
High Definition Audio Device