Is this the system in your sig?
I would reset to stock clocks, and run memtest86+ from a usb/cd. It's most likely your ram, cpu, psu or possibly the 460GTX. However my intial bet would be the ram. Run 1-2 passes of memtest to see if your ram is okay. We can work from there.
Generally I just write down in bullets the questions or problems I'm trying to solve. If something ends up taking more work than I thought I might make a seperate set of bullets for what needs to be done. Overall though it's a lot like you in that I just dive in and start. It might be sloppy but...