Windows 7 Network dies after sleep mode

Oftentimes the cause of this sort of random hibernation/shutdown is overheating. Most computers are set to hibernate if the internal temperature reaches a certain level. A friend of mine has an Asus laptop, and it tends to run hot. Speedfan is a very popular piece of software which can be used to check the temperature being reported by your computer's internal sensors. You should be able to find a datasheet for your CPU, which will tell you the heat tolerances, and whether it is in fact the heat that is causing it to hibernate.

My first thought would be to say it's the drive, as they are notoriously crappy drives.

Check this out from NewEgg's feedback section on the drive:

Cons: Vista OS. It worked fine when initially plugged in, but it would not recover after the computer was put to sleep. Upon wake up, the drive would not appear in Explorer. It would reappear again after a reboot but would disappear after a sleep cycle. I wanted the drive to store Media files from Vista Media Center which goes to sleep when not in use. Returned it and bought a Western Digital.

But, you mention you upgraded the chipset drivers, but

1. Did you get them from Asus or Intel? Hit Intel's site and grab the latest version offered by them (currently v9.3.0.1019).

2. Did you update the drivers for the HDD controller itself?

That board also has two different SATA HDD controllers on it, an Intel Matrix Storage controller, and a JMicron.

So hook it to the Intel SATA ports and hit Intel's site to grab the latest Matrix Storage Manager/drivers (which have been renamed to the "Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver").

Here's a direct link to v11.1.0.1006 of the Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver from March of this year.