need some hardware opinions please

[muddNZ]

i'm going to stick my old system back together with some new (or 2nd hand) parts and use it as a spare - though if the current rig carries on pissing me off, the old setup could end up being the new setup lol.

parts i currently have are:
- xfx 680i motherboard
- Q6600 (with stock cooler)
- 2gig ddr2 1066 ram
- ide optical drive
- X-Fi extreme gamer pci soundcard
- CM690 case

i'm thinking i'll overclock the cpu - mainly just to give it a go, so a better cooler will be needed. any ideas on which ones are better value for money?

i'll need a psu - are coolermaster psu's any good? cos they seem to be priced a bit cheaper than the silverstone/corsair types i've used previously, and i don't want to spend too much. is more power needed when overclocking? if so, how much more?

hard drive - i'm thinking 500gig - 1tb cos the prices are pretty good but which is the better brand, seagate/WD/samsung?

graphics card - i'm getting sick of ati driver issues so nvidea should be the go, but i've heard that the 400 series cards run really hot so maybe an older 275/280 could be an option?

os - either xp or 7 depending on whether i kill the current rig

i won't be getting this stuff all at once, it'll be dribs and drabs as i can afford it, tho the bank acc is looking fairly healthy at the mo:PDT_Armataz_01_34[1
but basically value for money and ease of use are most important.

[Jad51]

There is my two cents :)
I have had three Seagate and two western digital hard drive fail in the last 10 months still prefer Seagate as they were all pretty old, Western digital lasted 3 weeks and the replacement 9 months. Just been the the computer lounge today and got a new replacement one! (lost 200 gig of data :( ) I also have a Samsung that has been fine but I do not use it very often as it is just for back ups.

I would go with windows 7 it runs sweet on my laptop which is lower than your current specs and is more future proof.

[M3DIC]

Hard drives are luck of the draw, as long as you buy the right one for the job. IE Dont buy a WD Green if it is your primary hard drive, you would want a WD Black.

WD and Segate are almost identical. I have all WD drives and havent had one fail yet (touch wood).

You could always buy a Solid State hard drive with a 500GB/1TB Black, that would remove any hard drive bottlenecking.

Any graphics card you have (of the upper end) are going to have heat issues, Im looking at upgrading myself. My current 4850x2 can get up to 85 under load, thats why you have a good cooling case. You could also have a dedicated physix card to remove load on the primary card.

The current socket set (CPU and Ram type) are perhaps a little old and not sure if you want to spend that much money on upgrading its current status, IE more DDR2 RAM that wont fit anything else in the future (whereas hard drives etc will).

[Jad51]

Forgot to mention get the 64 bit version of windows 7 :)
Or trial it first and see if you like it (seek and you shell find)

[28th|MB|]-[ats*]

graphics card - i'm getting sick of ati driver issues so nvidea should be the go, but i've heard that the 400 series cards run really hot so maybe an older 275/280 could be an option.

I have a GTX280 you can buy. Iv been using it as a dedicated physics card but its not worth it so I took it out. its a 65mil size GPU chip so under 100% load it can get HOT= up to 87 but its designed to take it as its TJ max is set at 105. No problems running COD 4 and BC2 (BC2 medium settings FPS around 60-80) only 9-10 months old with 3 or 5 year warranty

INFO on the card here

http://www.superwarehouse.com/Gigabyte_GV_GTX280_DDR3-1GB_DX10_2_DVI/GV-N28-1GH-B/ps/1533316