Problem with Windows 7 freezing, help please

Hello-

My specs are copied below.
I built this machine a year or two ago. All of a sudden a few days ago, it has started freezing after about 8 minutes of operation after Windows 7 boots up [COLOR=blue !important][COLOR=blue ! important][COLOR=blue ! important][/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR](I can almost set my clock to it). Basically the computer boots up normally and operates totally normally. After a short while (3 to 8 minutes), computer operation freezes. I can still move the mouse around, the screen looks normal, but nothing works. Next to the mouse cursor, the little circle spins like the computer is trying to do something. I can't click on the start button, click on icons, move the open windows [COLOR=blue !important][COLOR=blue !important][/COLOR][/COLOR]around, hit CTRL-ALT-DEL.....nothing. After a few minutes, sometimes the computer will just dump and try to reboot.

Here's what I have done so far, which has been of zero help:
1) System restore to various points
2) I went into msconfig [COLOR=blue !important][COLOR=blue !important][/COLOR][/COLOR] and unchecked all the boxes in the Services tab except the "Microsoft Corporation" stuff. I went to the startup tab and unchecked everything.
3) I rolled the video driver back, even though the driver wasn't updated today or in the past week or so I don't think. Video card temperatures are normal.
4) Even when running the computer in SAFE MODE [COLOR=blue !important][COLOR=blue !important][COLOR=blue !important][/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR]with no network capability, the system freezes after about 3 to 8 minutes.
5) I was thinking that maybe it was a virus, but I can't get through an entire system scan in Normal or Safe mode because the system freezes up.
6) I booted the computer from a LINUX [COLOR=blue !important][COLOR=blue !important][/COLOR][/COLOR]CD and ran the computer in LINUX. It ran fine in LINUX with no lock ups.
7) I booted the computer 3 times, each with only one stick of RAM. All the times the computer locked up after about 10 minutes.
8) I checked CPU voltage and temperatures with the motherboard utility, all normal.

Any advice appreciated. I've pretty much done everything I know how to do. I'm "assuming" that this is some sort of Windows 7 problem and not a hardware problem [COLOR=blue !important][COLOR=blue !important][COLOR=blue !important][/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR]since the computer ran fine when booted into LINUX.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Windows 7 64 bit
P6X58D-E Motherboard
Core i7
Corsair Dominator 6GB RAM DDR3
HD5870 Sapphire Graphics Card
OCZ Vertex 2 120GB boot drive
WD Velociraptor storage drive
SoundBlaster XFI

Disregard above post. Solution found. I think it was a bad SATA cable or bad port on my MB.