Right now my friends has .9's on the guitar, and the action is fantastic. I showed it to my dad, he played it, and we both decided that the next guitar we got was going to be this one.
I've read a number of user-comment things on the net saying that .9's and .10s work great on the guitar, you can get killer bends and do hot licks with either.
I'm not too knowledgeable about pedals and effects, really. The two guys in my band both have a DigiTech RP300, I'd assume it's a little outdated now but it's cheap and I've heard some wicked sounds come out of it... The bad part is you have to make them yourself, though it's not all too complicated to learn how to work the pedal.
For computer effects I have no knowledge about... The guitarist in my band is our technician and mixer. The most I really know is we use Sonar 3 Pro on the computer and I can somewhat find my way around. But as I said - He knows all the fancy stuff. Software just isn't my bit.