Essence St is too hot!!!

Please i need some help...my computer randomly went off today so i started doing some troubleshooting.

Then when i reboot foobar2000 couldn't find ASIO device so i opened up the case and the Essence St was so hot...i mean hot enough to invoke a reflex.

My computer usually stays on 24/7 and this would be the first time i've experienced something like this so any help would be very much appreciated.

Thank You.

the case is apex sk-393, the mobo is intel dg41rq, i have single slot powercolor hd6850 gpu, a full size linksys nic, and then essence st on the last pci slot attached to the h6 daughter board. unfortunately the essence st has no temp sensor for me to monitor but the gpu runs at ~70c when at full load with the fan permanently set to 80%. i have 2x 92mm fans; one at the top back, the other at the bottom front, and a customized 140mm at the right side panel. and i have antec earthpower 750watts PSU. i have been running this setup for months now trouble-free.

so i don't know what coulda brought up this malfunction

well i recently updated to the latest driver so i'm thinking that could be the issue so i reverted to the previous essence st win7 x64 driver and now i get the clicking and popping sounds when i switch sample rates or when i switch from ASIO to DS: ASUS XONAR ESSENCE ST in foobar2000 (no popping/clicking with the newest driver)...and i also noticed that when i switched the essence st from the farthest PCI slot to the one closest to the gpu it kinda mimicks the hd6850's temp; what i mean is that when the ST was at the last pci slot it would get hot even when not in use, its like the temp just kept rising and it forces the board to power down (my guess) but now i noticed the temp is cooler when the system is idle and gets a lil warm when in use, but ST's temp rises as the gpu's temp rises even when the ST is idle, the GPU idles at 44/45c and thats with the windows classic desktop without themes.

Well the network adapter was warm when it was closer to the gpu...when i switched it to the farthest pci slot its actually cool....

well the case is small and i'm actually considering adding another 140mm fan but the case has ok airflow.

these are my temps at idle DG41RQ: northbridge 39c,  southbridge 40c,  cpu 33c,   CPU : core 0 through 3 ranges  from 39-42c ; core 0 seems to stay warmer. SSD 35c, HDD 39c, hd6850 44/45c

well i solved my hot ST problem by wiping off my ssd and reinstalling win7 ultimate x64 sp1 and then reinstalling all my drivers, but the computer still randomly powers down but this time it restarts instead of shutting down like it used to do before. so i guess my ST was not the problem after all...i'm so frustrated i just don't know any other troubleshooting method.   i'm supposed to be great at troubleshooting but i'm having a tough time with this build though.

Thanks to everyone who posted but if you have any ideas please don't hesitate to share

no my computer is not overclocked....i got in touch with an individual on newegg who has the same mobo (DG41RQ0 and bought the same ram PGS28g6400elk who experienced something similar to what i'm experiencing. he recommended i use the windows memory diagnostic tool which i set to extended, default and 10 passes and it had been running for almost 16hrs now without any hardware problems detected.

The one thing that i forgot to do when i reinstalled win7 was to actually remove my ST and see if the problem persist, so after the windows memory diagnostic tool finishes i'll do a fresh install without the ST to see if its the issue.

I have eliminated the gpu, powercolor single slot 6850 from my troubled hardware bcos i ran furmark for 6hrs with catalyst control center in overdrive @ 850mhz and 1100mhz, the temp ran up to 75*c but there was absolutely no flickering, artifacts or nothing,

My PSU is antec earthwatts 750watts.

tech specs: mobo intel dg41rq

                  ram pgs28g6400elk

                  gpu powercolor single slot 6850

                  ssd 64gb microcenter brand g2 series OS only

                  hdd WD2003fyys 2tb storage only

                  sound card Essence ST

                  network adapter linksys gigabit eg1032v3

                  disc drives liteon bluray ihbs208, hp dvd drive

                  PSU antec earthwatts 750

                  CPU intel q6700

                  case apex:(supercase/allied) sk393

WOW!!!!!!!! i finally solved my problem!!!!

I had two issues going against me: 1: The connectors for the front panel power, reset hdd led and all that were either bad or something but they were short-circuiting the board...i found this out after swapping mobos...the new mobo had its own power button so i was able to survive without the front panel connectors.

2. Second issue were the nuts that screws down the mobo to the mobo tray. i guess somehow one of them went missing so there was one that was a replacement...i'm not sure what kinda metal it was made out of but it seems that was the one causing the short circuiting as well. Thanks to a buddy of mine that let me use his gigabyte usb3, soon as i pushed the power button on the case it would try to come on but there would be a clicking sound and it would power down. the other board was an asus p6x58d-e that wouldn't even turn on but the power button at the bottom edge of the board just kept flashing.

So there guys thanks to everyone that posted...my ST is all good and i have been running troublefree for ~7days!!!!