Need to rebuild 1st DC in windows 2000 domain

Company did an in-place upgrade of an NT40 server.  Presently have 3 sites, 2 satellite and 1 host with server placement as follows:

Host Site - 2 DC's both GC's All FSMO roles on the upgraded NT40 Server
Satellite 1 - 1 DC GC
Satellite 2 - 1 DC GC
Connectivity between sites it via Perminant T1 VPN tunnels

I need to rebuilt the 1st DC at the host site (the NT40 upgraded to 2k DC) with all the FSMO roles.  I believe I have 2 options:
1. dcpromo the box...which would look for another DC to transfer knowledge to...logically to the DC at the same site. Then remove the server, rebilid, and dcpromo
2. Transfer the FSMO roles manually, then remove the server, rebuild, and dcpromo.

I have verified successful replications between all sites via repmon, each site has it's own DNS server and WINS server(just in case)

Questions:
Is there anything else I need to know to complete this process?  
Does the root DC hold any other, special "powers" that need to be addressed prior to removing and rebuilding?
Are there any special replication time frames that I should be aware of, outside my standard replication setup?

any help would be appreciated.

Thanks