I'm not good at Linux much yet, but I'm a computer engineering student, and starting to learn (and love) it. It makes me feel a lot less brain washed from the Microsoft monopoly that all classwork used to be based on.
Anyway I was wondering what video cards, tv tuners (preff hd), z wave lights and such would make for an amazing media center computer (that i still plan on using for my base computer, and a laptop with the shitty ass windows vista, just because I'm too scared to fully leave yet, and I already have it, so eh... now you know why i love linux, hah)
Anyways, lets say that I will have about 3k$ by the time i actually make it (though with student loans that money is super hypothetical, heh)
Also I only plan on controlling my room in the dorm apartment, not a whole house (though I eventually plan to control my house with this beautiful being)
See the hardware category (http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Category:Hardware) and it's sub categories in the wiki for hardware that people have bothered to share their experience with.