I've had good experience with both Asus and Liteon drives.
Hard drives:
1. if money is no object, the $300 74 GB WD Raptor (SATA interface)
2. if that's too rich for your blood (doesn't matter whether it's "normal" IDE / PATA or SATA):
a. if you don't mind noise, a normal Western Digital is about the fastest, or Hitachi's new 250 series is fast and quiet
b. Maxtor is usually a little slower but quieter than WD
c. Samsung is cheap, quieter still, and has decent performance
Seagate used to be the silent champ, but that was a couple of generations ago (the IV, before the V and now 7200.x)
Edit: pay attention within a brand, some models have 1-year warranty while others are 3-year.