energy efficient fullsize htpc mobo ?

[timciren]

Hi,
I have an asus p5e-v hdmi mobo in my htpc at the mo.
Its about 18 months old.
It has never been great with RAM problems, random freezing, failure to restart after sleep, now graphics problems and BSOD.
I thought it was the 2900 card playing up so I bought a 4670 card but that doesnt work either and it crashes with no card on a fresh instal on vista, something I should have tested before buying a new card
I have always been happy with my Abit,
Question is what to replace the Asus with.
A secondhand Abit ( a bit worried incase it has been abused )
or a new board, maybe
Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3P Intel P45 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
I have left it on 24/7 for the last 6 months because it crashes if I try to put it to sleep then it doesnt record the scheduled stuff, so energy efficient is good or something that will wake from sleep even better
thanks in advance for advice

 

[JonJ678]

What ram are you using with it? Mine wasn't very keen on 1066mhz ocz at all.

I only post because I really like my board, and would probably put effort into diagnosing the BSOD etc before damning it. Sure it's not windows playing up over something else for example?

 

[timciren]

I started with ballistix 1066 without readingthe combatability booklet.. then I tried ocz 5400, then dropped down to cheap ram I had spare and it worked fine
Do you have any issues with sleep and the 'overclocking failed mesg when it wakes up ?
It might be worth retrying vista again, it ran ok in safe mode