hmm.. 700 is dirt cheap..

are you gonna deal through post? It's better if you can meet up face to face to deal.. Benq and the new hitachi is very much quieter than the older drives. Extra heatsink does help with 3rod prob, not so much to eliminate it but to reduce the chances of it happening.

As for controller, it's one receiver to 1 controller. and yes, you can use xbox 360 controller for pc and vice versa.. it's the same controller actually. the receiver for pc is actually a 2.4ghz receiver in the xbox 360.

you need a rca converter to the headphone jack (green jack you see for speaker connection). Can buy those converter easily at electrical shops.

those who want to get an xbox premium with microsoft warranty may pm me. i have a set for sale. click my siggy.

actually, any HDMI cable will work. You don't need to buy those monster cables HDMI or those expensive ones. If not mistaken there is someone in Garage Sale who is selling HDMI at reasonable price.

Reason why those moster cable HDMI and those expensive ones won't make a difference is because of the signal transmitted. Signal transmitted over HDMI is digital, not analog, hence not affected by the quality of the cable. You either get the signal or you don't. There's no partial signal quality over HDMI.