beavis,
I have an 03 Rockhopper FSR Comp and recently swapped out wheels, front fork (to a RS Reba) and added in SRAM X.9 triggers/RD. All it can say is WOW what an improvement. The fork was the biggest improvement followed closely by the wheelset. THis week was the first big ride on it (2+ hrs) and everything was better.
The Reba is a very good deal given the price (not cheap but I think close to fox for $200 less) and made some sketchy trail parts easy ... My old Manitou Axel was pretty bad (very flexy).
Was thinking of selling this bike and upgrading but so far am very happy with fork/wheelset upgrade and will keep it for a while.
Berardino