Finished!

Finally got a completed configuration for my rig -

C2Q Q6600 @ 3.06/1.275v/1360 FSB. Idles at ~46 on the hottest core, loads at ~62 on hottest core.

Cooler Master Hyper TX-2 with stock Intel fan (I've got a tape job going to mount the fan... but it's a heckuva lot quieter than the stock Cooler Master fan)

2x2gb A-Data DDR2-800 @ 850/1.8v/5-5-5-15

Gigabyte G31M-S2L. Gigabyte has VERY friendly BIOS; I can't ever see buying from anyone else now.

XFX GTS 250 Core Edition 1GB @ stock frequencies (738/1836/2200). Bought this as opposed to the GTX260 Core 216 because of the lower power requirement/consumption and close performance for the games I'll be playing.

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250 GB/16 MB cache

ASUS Vento mATX case

Silverstone ST400 PSU

I was surprised to find that this setup plays Assassin's Creed at 1600x1200/max quality/16xAF/16xQAA and never sees below ~45 FPS. My 3dMark Vantage score seems a bit lowish, though - I score around 7300 total/6550 GPU (PPU disabled). Does anyone else have a similar CPU/GPU configuration? If so, how's your 3dMark score? How does it perform with Crysis/at what settings?

^ I'm not sure what you mean... but they're both stable and perform well for everything that I use my machine for.