Advice on a replacement motherboard

[Velorien]

Hi.

After a remarkable variety of hardware failures which I (and three different PC repair shops) have failed to trace to any clear source, I want to replace my Asus PN32E SLI + motherboard. I believe that it is responsible for the random disappearance and reappearance of one or more of my three hard drives and the gradual decline in function of my two DVDRW drives (as well as random freezing errors with messages relating to the motherboard's NVidia driver).

Could you please advise me on a better motherboard which will still have the right slots for all my hardware?

My specs are as follows:

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™2 Duo E6850 (2 X 3.00GHz) 1333MHz FSB/4MB L2 Cache

Motherboard
ASUS® P5N32-E SLI+: Quad-core CPU Ready, NVIDIA® Dual X16 SLI

Memory (RAM)
8GB CORSAIR DDR2 667MHz (4x2GB)

Graphics Card
768MB GEFORCE 8800GTX PCI Express + DVI + TV-OUT

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
150GB WD Raptor® SATA 16MB CACHE (10000rpm)

2nd Hard Disk
500GB SERIAL ATA II HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB CACHE (7200rpm)

3rd Hard Disk
I forget its specs, but it's also SATA, and the problems started before I installed it, so I guess it's not relevant except insofar as I need three SATA connections.

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
20x Dual Layer LightScribe DVD Writer ±R/±RW/RAM

2nd DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
20x Dual Layer LightScribe DVD Writer ±R/±RW/RAM

Power Supply & Case Cooling
600W Quiet Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan

Processor Cooling
ASUS SILENT KNIGHT II PURE COPPER ULTRA COOLER

Sound Card
Sound Blaster® Audigy® SE with 7.1 Surround Sound

Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT

USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS (4 REAR + 2 FRONT)

Firewire & Video Editing
2 x IEEE 1394a FIREWIRE PORTS (1 onboard, 1 at back panel)

Operating System
64 Bit Windows 7 Ultimate

Sorry if any of this information is insufficient or redundant - I am a hardware newbie. Please let me know if you know of a better motherboard which will accommodate all of the above hardware (it's primarily a gaming PC). Or, indeed, if you know of a different cause for the problem I've described.

Thanks a lot!

 

[T_T]

Post the specs of your power supply:

How many +12v rails?
What is the output (Amps) of each +12v rail?

Please elaborate on the "gradual decline in function".

 

[tectonik]

just let us know the brand & name of your PSU ..... 600W can be only on paper.

 

[Velorien]

Will do. All I have right now are the specs I posted from the company that built it for me (PCSpecialist), so I'll have to check the hardware myself tomorrow (when shops are open and I can get the right screwdrivers). Thanks for replying.

As for the gradual decline in function, my DVDRW drives have been recognising healthy new DVDs less and less, to the point that one just doesn't work at all and the other takes forever to read DVDs and then usually gives up anyway. The same happens when I try to burn DVDs - one always fails and the other usually fails partway into the process.

 

[Velorien]

MY PSU is an FSP Epsilon 600W.

I don't know what +12v rails are, but the description on the side gives 4 of them, at 18 Amps.