New to recording, need some advice

[Heathen_Pride]

I was recommended Digidesign's Mbox 2 Mini recently by a friend of mine. However I've read some negative reviews about it, and my computer only has 512 RAM. I was wondering what my best bet for recording is under $350, not including the cost of a mic.

I don't care about having enough inputs to record drums since I can just program those. From what I understand Pro Tools has an amp emulater, I would need something like that as well unless I can use the "recording out" thing on my amp, I have no idea what that does.

Basically I just want to know how to get the best sound quality I can without including the cost of a mic for under $350. I know next to nothing about what I need to record at this point, any help is appreciated.

Also, mixing shouldn't be an issue since my friend can apparently do that for me.