I swear by SRAM for chains. Don't know their shifters, and I'm quite happy with my Shimanos. Derailleurs too.
Grip shifters drive me nuts, gotta have click-push shifters.
V-Brakes also drive me nuts. It really scares me to ride a bike without discs now, it feels like I'm going to crash when the brakes don't respond.
My current derailleur is what's called a "rapid rise", which was known as a "retard rise" when it came out due to crappy components - but components have now caught up to the idea. Basically it flips around the shifting on the rear derailleur, so that both shifters go in the same direction - click down (less cable pressure) to make it more difficult to pedal, push up (more cable pressure) to make it less difficult. It takes some getting used to but it really helps... When you're leaned forward trying to make it up a big hill and you need an easier gear, you can just click on the front of the bars rather than trying to apply pressure from the back. Much easier to do.
My fork has been slowly dying on me ever since I bought my bike. I couldn't be bothered to fix it, time or money-wise. It's basically a rigid at this point. Maybe some day I'll shell out for a dual suspension setup, but personally I find the front without the back kind of pointless... or maybe my fork just always sucked.