Please give advice on replacement motherboard

To me, rule #1 with PSU is always buy more than you think you need.

Personally, I would avoid Antec. I just had my second PSU burn out in less than three years -- and they were both Antec 500-watt PSUs.

I got an PCZ PSU for about what I had paid for the Antec, and it's working fine.

But ... I would agree with buying more than you need. I replaced the Antec 500W with a 750W.

So with your experience, your motherboard was doing this and it wasn't a power supply? See the thing that gets me is that its fine in safe mode....but if I go into normal it just poops out about 15seconds to 1 minute later. I can keep it on all day in safe mode.

Weird? To me it is....because it seems to me if it was the PSU, then the PSU would crap out regardless of which mode it was in. Think I'm going to put the PSU in another machine and see what happens. Wish I had a voltmeter *looks around*

I thought in a previous post you said you have a junk PSU and were going to buy a new larger PSU and Motherboard.
I would suggest that you should buy just a new PSU and install it. Then if it continues having problems you can buy a new MB. You may not have to buy a new Motherboard.

It seems to me that when you start in safe mode, several of the services are shut down, therefore you are requiring less power from the PSU. That could suggest that the PSU is your problem, not the motherboard. Also, if you are planning to buy both anyway, buying just a PSU first will cost you nothing and may save you from buying a Motherboard.

Well, I've tested it without all 4 sticks of RAM and only one video card, and even unplugged all but the OS drive. Taxing the PSU was the first thing that came to mind. This didn't help my testing procedure unfortunately. The machine still shut down once it got into normal mode RIGHT after a fresh install of Windows 7. So since your last post....I got bored and tore down what I like to call my "Dinosaur" which is an Intel 2.20GHZ with a whopping 256 MB's ram, running a fresh install of XP and nothing else. I pulled out the PSU, replaced it with the PSU I was stuck buying here in Russia. Kimpro 500Watt is the name...ehh..don't ask. I was up against the wall at the time. I put this in "dinosaur", put in one of my Geforce 8800GTS OC video cards, and have had it running for about an hour now and it's not shut down on me. Granted this isn't as power hungry of a system as my other system, but it's somewhat close. I know this doesn't mean anything....but now I'm defintely leaning towards a junk motherboard. I can get an ASRock that is a hybrid and supports AM3-AM2 processors and the price is about $60. I'm going to get a new PSU as well. Still this just goes to show how important it is to get a GOOD PSU as the heart of the machine and with computers....anything can happen. I'm super glad Seven Forums is around.

Thanks for all the help everyone :)

I was going to try the PSU from dinosaur, but its rated at 300watts max and only has a "Legacy" type plug (missing 4 extra pins)...so it wont work. Dinosaur is still running with the PSU and hasn't shut down :)