I really dont know where all your problems come from =/
I started 3 days ago with the version 0.8.54 on 4 dedicated servers with Intel Xeon E5-1650 3.50GHz which gets 3.96 hpm each and I found 7 blocks so far without a single crash or get stucked on a block.
Everything wents fine here.
Balance: 1680 MMC =)
Edit: Perhaps it runs better with more than 8 connections. My clients got more than 40 connections each. I just opend the firewall for the Port 1968.