1. Why would I need 2 ethernet cards?!
2. What about the video card? Dont I need a card so I can conncect the computer to the tv?

yea I am trying to find out the minimum hardware requirements as well

Better yet, what hardware other than a normal computer do I need and what specs are acceptable? I am not trying to spend a lot of money, just enough to get the media center functioning w/o any problems.

Ok I like downloading lots of media via torrent such as albums and tv shows. Anyways right now I download them all on my desktop computer and then if its a dvd I burn it and than play on dvd player connected to dvd, and if its a divx file I burn a cd of that and it can play on my dvd player which has divx support. But say I wanted to make things easier, is there any software that will do this:

Basically I want to have a small computer sitting next to my big TV where I can use the tv to:

1. Surf the web
2. Be able to connect to the internet and browse sites and download media such as movies and music albums
3. Be able to pop a dvd/audio cd and have it rip it and store it and be able to play it back
4. Be able to pop in a media card, mmc, sd, and rest, and be able to browse pictures

How much would a computer also cost in able to do these things?