Please help! I think my motherboard is dying and I need some guidance!!!

My trouble started a few months ago with my computer not booting up to Windows 7 without multiple tries of turning computer on and off using the switch on the back of the tower. Additionally, I have no sound from my speakers and am only getting sound from headphones connected to the front USB port. I tried everything I found via google and settings, etc. After this going on for awhile, I replaced my power supply with a Thermaltake Toughpower TPD-0750M - SLI / CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Gold Certification and Semi Modular Cables Black Active PFC Power Supply Intel Haswell Ready (PS-TPD-0750MPCGUS-1). That did not fix my problem. I looked for virus, malware, etc. and found nothing. Also, my brother tried with a different graphics card, That did not help.

I did the free Windows 10 upgrade hoping that would help. It did not.

The issues have gotten progressively worse and now my computer will shut down randomly, with increasing frequency and it still takes multiple tries to get into windows. I am now thinking that my motherboard is dying but I am not sure because I really don't know much about these things. I am getting ready to buy another one but see that the Asus Sabertooth Z77 is no longer really out there, availability for the Intel board is not good and I am wondering if I should replace my CPU as well.

Another strange thing is when I play Civilization 5 (the only game I have on my computer) it now seems to run slow...video is not fluid (recent development).

I want to minimize my expenses here as my financial situation isn't quite as good as when I purchased the below components though I will spend the money I need to as I do NOT want to compromise performance. I use my system primarily for Creative Suite and Lightroom (most important in performance here) and Office and the Gaming features are not important to me.

My questions are;

1) Do you think this is a motherboard problem?
2) Considering the 1155 availability do you think I should also replace the CPU and if so, which route should I go here? Do I need to replace anything else?
3) Any suggestions as to other issues it could be if not motherboard, power supply or video/graphics card?


Any help here is beyond appreciated. I have included my build below and if I need to replace other things, please advise!

July 2012 Build;


Corsair Obsidian Series 550D Black Aluminum / Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

ASUS SABERTOOTH Z77 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

AMD 100-505649 FirePro V4900 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 Workstation Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

CORSAIR Professional Series Gold AX750 (CMPSU-750AX) 750W ATX12V v2.31 / EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Intel Core i7-3770K Ivy Bridge 3.5GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

1 qty - Corsair Force Series GT CSSD-F90GBGT-BK 2.5" 90GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

2 qty - Corsair Force Series GS CSSD-F180GBGS-BK 2.5" 180GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

CORSAIR Vengeance LP 32GB (4 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CML32GX3M4A1600C10
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

VANTEC UGT-CR945 9pin USB Header, PCIe USB 3.0 Upgrade Kit with Card Reader
Model #:UGT-CR945
Item #:N82E16820276015
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Western Digital Caviar Black WD2002FAEX 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

LG Black 14X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 5X DVD-RAM 12X BD-ROM 4MB Cache SATA BDXL Blu-ray Burner,3D Play Back (WH14NS40) - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 64-bit - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Rosewill RNX-N180UBE Wireless Adapter IEEE 802.11b/g/n USB 2.0 1T2R / 5 dBi External Antenna / Up to 300Mbps Wireless Download Data Rates 64/128-bit WEP (Hex & ASCII), WPA/WPA2, WPA(TKIP with IEEE 802.1x)/WPA2(AES with IEEE 802.1x)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO RR-212E-20PK-R2 Continuous Direct Contact 120mm Sleeve CPU Cooler Compatible with latest Intel 2011/1366/1155 and AMD FM1/AM3+
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...