Thank you all very much for the super quick replies. I do believe that all my questions have been answered. I will go with just replacing my 7 speed stuff. Why rock the boat right? Everything else works and I've never ridden a 8+ speed bike so I don't know to miss anything. My old ratio was 11-30 and worked for me. Is there a ratio that others find better for 7 speed? I can only find that in IG components and I thought that since my chain is HG that I would put all HG cogs on.

Anyway, thanks very much,
Kyle