Sorry for the late reply, been hectic around here!
Anyway, before I saw these replies, I was looking through the forums for possible solutions. Seems that:

1) The video card seems to cause a lot of problems (mine is an Nvidia GeForce 8500GT)

2) The best way to install is normally choosing the fewest options possible in the "Customize" menu during install, then adding drivers later on, once you have a working system.

So I just formatted the volume and will be reinstalling tonight.

Before I do, my hardware is listed above in the OP--> can anyone suggest to me what options to choose/avoid in the Customize menu?

Thanks guys, I really appreciate the help with this!

Andrew