I spent some time reading about nightly builds. I'm admittedly an amateur who is pretty much hobby programming. So this is all pretty new to me.
It seems you have a hard time understanding the principles of libraries in general. It's an important topic you might want to google for a bit.
- MinGW (this has been a problem for me, the official release says 'click here to download the latest version' but doesn't say what version you are getting)
Does that mean you didn't download Code:'Blocks with MinGW, but got it from MinGW directly?
You can see the version by calling g++ -v on the commandline, given that g++ is found.
Now when I look at the nightly builds page I'm guessing 'MinGW TDM GCC 4.7.1 64bit' is what I want?
If you use the C::B with MinGW, it's the TDM x32 build. If you use MinGW from their website, it's the normal MinGW build (also x32).
When I unload this it looks to me like the same files that are in the SFML 2.0 directories. So my question is, are these nightly builds intended to replace the ones in the SFML 2.0 standard installation?
Yes, that is the case, but the important difference is, that the bibaries (DLL/LIB/A files) are built with and for the correct compiler.
Also is it recommended that I use the packaged MinGW/CodeBlock combo? It has been suggested to me that I get them separately.
That's personal preferrence. If the current setup works, keep it.