Advice for new miner?

Greetings-

I've been "on the sidelines" looking at Bitcoin for a while, but finally plunged into the BTC market not too long ago.
Now, I want to get into mining. Plus, it's a great excuse to introduce myself and get to know others here, too!

I have an idea for an AMD-based mining rig. I will be building it in the coming weeks, and the central part of it will be a Tahiti-based GPU and a good Corsair, modular PSU to power it all. Plenty of cooling/ventilation too. Nothing terribly serious, but something that I can at least experiment with until the ASIC units really start to smash the difficulty level.

I do have a few questions, though, and I apologize as I'm sure they have been answered at various other places:
1. What are some of your favorite mining pools?
2. Any advice for a mining newbie looking to contribute to and join a pool? If you could do it over again, what do you wish you had known going in?
3. What are some of the better clients for mining? I'm sure there is no one 'best" software for that and that each have their advantages.
4. Does each pool mandate a particular mining software?

Thanks in advance!

The Extreme