Cubase and Panasonic Da7 HELP!!!!!

[Razorm]

I would appreciate some opnions from anyone who might care to share their thoughts with me.

I have looked into getting Cubase vst 5.0 along with a nuendo 24 bit sound card. I run a pc win 98 pIII 850 mghz with 256 ram and 7200 ibm HD.
Ive been advised to use a powered plug in for effects plus a steinberg controller houston, and an ev voice tub voice channel pre mic.
I have a good friend I talk to online who says the CUBASE system is not the way to go to use a mixer and recorder etc..and suggests a panasonic Da7 mixing board and then record to my hard drive on computer, and to mix on the mixing board since it can handle many more processes per sec and the quality ismuch much better, concerning eq's etc.

Im very confused and disappointed I seem to get so many diverse opinions, so diametrically opposed..

is there no bottom line truth to things?
Im recording at home, but I do want a great result when Im done..

Can anyone help me sort this out?