gigabit adapter (10/100/1000mbps)

is it worth the extra cost to choose linksys/netgear/dlink over hawking/buffalo/airlink?

linksys ~$50
vs
airlink ~$8.99

will linksys kick the snot out of airlink when tranferring, say, a couple of 8GB .iso's? or how 'bout ~30GB of celeb nudie clips?
and is CAT5e sufficient? or do i need CAT6 for maximum throughput?

your harddrive will be a bottleneck at 1Gbps, go for the cheapest

Your free time to play/watch/read/use/order/archive all that shit is the bottleneck :P

oooh...burn! that half-assed attempt at an insult doesn't even make sense.