Does safe mode work?
Also, regarding the boot.ini issue: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/330184
Oddly, I got the "Invalid Boot.ini" on my recent Vista install when I switched from IDE mode to AHCI mode. Stupid automatic disabling of unused storage protocols :). Nothing worked to fix it...
I recently purchased an i7 setup and ran FM Vantage on a stock speed EVGA 2xGTX 260 setup and got max temperatures of 74 and 71 for the top and bottom cards respectively (using the EVGA tool). I didn't check the fan speed at that time though.
Pretty impressive I thought since the top card is...