Maybe I should have clarified; is it more than a year old or so?

Further:
Just wanted to mention: the CPU is among the very toughest components inside a PC = would probably not go ka-putte any time soon. (besides, that would cause complete system failure in 99% of the time)

Well, we can rule out the graphics card. As this is a rather expensive mobo, I'm suggesting that you should check your memory first.

I hate to suggest this, but are you familiar with MemTest?

I think that you should check your memory stick(s) for errors. Look up the user 'Mark56' -- he often suggests a very good guide on how to check your memory.

Note: checking your RAM is very time consuming, we're talking 20+ hours. But it might rule out the RAM at least, and the only culprit left would be the mobo, then.

woot

actually im looking for a nice external HDD then suddenly this post caught my attention..

well first thing.. don't cling to the card, how will you know if the card causing the issue when your not using your internal vga(video adapter)

if it works with the internal stuff then its about time for the infamous "RMA"

have it exchange if you want! haha..

bestbuy has it.! ^^

It is not a year old, I've had it since October...so about 10 months. I'll give the MemTest a shot.

My friend theorized that it could be a problem with the GPU's memory.

Ah, then your friend gave an interesting theory. It could very well be the GPU memory as well.

To test this, swap the current graphics card for another one (if possible) and try to replicate the error. If non-existent, then your friend gave a very interesting idea.

Yea I'll try swapping my GPU with his. He has the GTX 460

I went to the Catalyst Control Center for ATI video cards which lets me do stuff with the gpu and tried a bunch of things..

1) I disabled AMD OverDrive, but the freezing and blackouts still persist.

2) I also checked the fan speed and it was at 65% by default.

3) I also tried Auto-tuning which supposedly determines the recommended over-clocked graphics processor and memory speeds, but this didn't solve the problem either.

My current settings are as follows:

Clock Setting: 950 MHz
Memory Clock Settings: 1245 MHz

This is getting annoying now because I can't even watch a youtube video sometimes. Video window just turns green after the freezing and "successful recovery"