rofl....
anyway....hey Pig, why not get an external drive caddy, then get a normal HD and DVD burner? That way you could swap out what you have in the caddy (HD or burner, depending on need) and not have to worry about yanking out your old CD-ROM.
anyway, far as specific opinions...
DVD-burner: as far as I'm concerned, it doesn't matter. They either work or don't work. Just go for a cheap one. If you're going to spend more, go for a Sony...I'm impressed with their burners.
Drive enclosure: Doesn't really matter. Make sure it support USB 2.0 and/or firewire if you have firewire on your computer. It's all about transfer speeds here. Of course, you'll also need to buy a normal hard drive. The advantage of an enclosure is that internal drivers are much cheaper than external ones. So once you buy the enclosure, you could go splurge on 2-3 drives and swap em out as you want to.
External Drive: If you opt for a real external drive, you won't get alot of storage space for your $$$. I was looking at one myself. Still, it's probably more ruggedized than an internal drive in a drive enclosure. Transfer speeds are most important...USB 2.0 or firewire.
NAS: The third option...network attached storage. Same effect as an external drive, but ethernet connected. I think it's even more expensive, but it gives you a universal storage area for your whole network...which means something if you have 4 computers like me. Anyway, just thought I'd mention it since you may have missed that option. Fry's had a tereabyte NAS for sale.
Course it was like $600, but still, I'd love to have a terabyte.
headphones: I don't think it matters. Get something comfortable. I got a free one with my guild wars collector's edition that's pretty nice. Looks like this one, but not so ugly.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... 49&CatId=0
Anyway, I'd recommend against the huge ass ones...you'll be wearing this for extended periods and don't need something that'll break your neck.
At any rate, those're my opinions.
@ the HD.