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If you solved the instability by checking the harddisk, I'd say there's not much to be gained by buying new hardware right now. A raptor harddisk is nice (I have it myself), but some new Maxtor disks, running at 7200 rpm, seem to be as fast as the raptor at 10,000 rpms!
Anyway, at this moment Intel is rolling out a new chipset (915/925), with a new motherboard layout and specs (new CPU socket, new PCI-Express videocards, new SATA harddisk connectors, new DDR2 memory,etc), while AMD is going to roll out a new socket for their Athlon64s. The result: if you buy now, you're not going to be able to use your "new" parts in a future computer. If you buy the new stuff from Intel, you might get an unstable system (first-generation might be crappy).
Personally, I'd wait a while for things to settle down. See if the new BTX case standard (pushed by Intel) catches on, see how the speed of the new systems compare to the "old" stuff, see what you can buy that would not be incompatible in a few months (SATA harddisks for example).
If you were to buy a state-of-the-art "old-generation" system right now, you'd either get an AMD64 with 400mhz DDR, or a P4 socket 478 processor, also with 400mhz DDR. Both would be using an AGP videocard. The speeds, when compared to your current system, would not be dramatically higher, except in games, due to the new videocard (which will also work in your current system!).
If you still have problems with instability, you might want to try a non-generic CPU cooler with higher performance, and add one or two case-fans for a better air-flow. And depending on the power supply, a new one might be better.
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