I believe I have figured out why the e1000 crashed my machine after .5 - 1 hours: The NIC was over-heating. I measured one of the NICs after the machine crashed with an external (cheap) temp probe. I
I have a pair of Compaq e1000's which have never overheated, and I use them for heavy duty iSCSI testing and designing of drivers. These are massive 66/64 cards but still nothing like what you are re