today I ordered a rme hamerfall dsp with the multiface-breakoutbox. rme had its problems with the shipping date but they told me that in 2 weeks shipping will start. it has 8 analog I/Os, ADAT interface and SPDIF. there's also a totalmix function along with asio drivers built into hardware. I was told quality was great and for this price i found nothing beating the rme.
i will use it in combination with nuendo. Concerning software i think it depends on personal taste, i love nuendo.
greetings
entenow