Lots of posts around here dealing with the same subject and I think a lot will come down to peoples personal preferences.
Personally I tend to use Nero 7. It's got everything I want for burning DVDs and CDs, as well as producing the covers.
As for the ripping side, I use freerip for CDs and grab DVD rips from newsgroups.
This is just what I do. I'm sure there will shortly be dozens of other posts with different ideas. Read 'em all and take your pick. You may also want to look at the following sites
CODE
http://www.cdfreaks.com/
http://www.videohelp.com/
http://www.dvdwriters.co.uk/