This is what I use:
I think the best balance is Smoothass with your min set at a stable MHz (for me it's 338MHz) and stable max (mine is stable at 1.9GHz but I put mine at 1.7MHz for better battery/temp.
For some phones if you go too low, it'll cause issues such as reboot, freeze, or slow response when you try to power on your screen. Some people seem to be okay with min at 245MHz but not me, so you should play around with it. I also add a cpu profile with highest priority for when the screen is off so that it doesn't go any lower than my minimum. Nothing is more annoying than getting a lag when you try to turn on your phone and it lags out and you have to wait like 5-10 seconds for it to turn on when you need your phone.
As for the max cpu speed, most Esteems can hit 1.8GHz, so 1.7GHz should be good. This is basically Smartass3 but I think some other guy made this one. As long as you set your min properly, this is good. Some people prefer to set their max at 1GHz or even lower to save battery, but I can notice the lag after an hour or so of use at lower speeds. I'm pretty sure I can go a bit lower than 1.7GHz so I'll mess with it and probably settle at around 1.4-1.5GHz.
For more info and descriptions of all governors:
CPU Governors - RootzWiki