"I built my PC with a Maxtor drive, but its been a few years and it had a noise problem. This fluid bearing stuff sounds good though. I'd never heard of that before."
Hard drives are among the parts witch will last the shortest time. If it has a like whining sound it is startning to get old, if the sound is more of a scratchy type, then backup everything important now and get a new one as soon as possible. If it has clicking sounds, avoid having your computer on and prepare for emergency backup, the drive will fail soon.
"My monitor is the Samsung 21.3 inch 213T, and it's very nice. They're going for anywhere from $500-750. Highly reccommended."
I would also recomend the Samsung 213T over the dell 2001fp for a general purpose computer.
"What does SATA mean in relation to hard drives, and what are the advantages/disadvantages over the older type HDs? Is SATA necessary for the average user?"
Sata is the connector type and the way to transfer the data to and from the device. Sata is standard nowdays, and what is standard is what you want. It is not "necessary" but what is "necessary" in life realy? If you gonna get a new hard drive (and your mother board supports sata, witch all new ones does) then buy a sata disk.
"What's this cooling system you're talking about?"
Me? I was talking about the cpu cooler:
http://www.zalmanusa.com/usa/product...=145&code=
Review:
http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20041213/index.html
From review: "The copper version of the new cooler should cost around $50, giving it a decent price-performance ratio considering both its cooling power and ultra quiet noise levels"
"if you only need one drive how do you copy from one CD to another?"
You copy the disc to the hard drive, then insert a blank one and then transfer it to the cd.
"I just bought an NEC 16x16 DVD+ RW drive. Is this a dual-purpose drive like everyone is talking about? Any opinions on the model?"
Many dvd drives are acually nec inside, so buying a nec directly is not a bad thing. That dual purpose talk felt very old-style. All new drives can burn both cds, dvds and what ever else you wanna burn. The pioneer 109 can burn: dvd-r, dvd-r dual layer, dvd+r, dvd+r dual layer, dvd-rw, dvd+r, cd-r, cd-rw. Everthing you want.
"Can you burn your data to a DVD instead of a CD? Is it a permanent burn, or can you overwrite data like you can with some CDs. Are there two different kinds of DVD disks?"
Yes DVD is very good for data, each disc can take about 4gb of data. There are both dvd-r discs witch can be written to once, and dvd-rw that can be written to several times (just like cd-r and cd-rw). Yes there are two types of dvd discs (actually three), dvd-r and dvd+r. Any new burner (like pioneer 109) can handle both types. So just get a good burner and worry about the discs later (i prefer dvd-r though).