I'd go with Nvidia 6600GT with 256 MB. I simply don't like ATIs and have no idea what card of theirs would be the equivalent. Some kind of X800 probably. Anyway, ordinary 6600 with 128 meg ram is about $130, while GT with 256 is around $190 but is simply better. Hard drive, I have two Maxtors in my computer (40 & 160 IDE) and a specifically ordered Maxtor SATA 160 at work. All work very fine. I don't think you can err with practically any brand - any of them can have a bad run. For instance, there was a whole series of IBM disks here that died almost as soon as they were installed.

-- erlik