best external sound card?

[Irish]

Hello . I'm new to recording. To keep things short, I'm on a laptop and I need an external soundcard. Suggestions? I'd like it under $200 if possible.

Specs:

P4 2.66 GHZ
512 MB RAM
Windows XP
80 Gig HDD

I'm not worried about software at the moment, once I have the hardware I'll get some trial versions and test it all out Thanks in advance.

 

[fldrummer]

What do you plan on recording?

 

[Irish]

A full band. Vox, 2 guitars, bass, and drums...

 

[fldrummer]

Well if you're going to record all of that at a time you're going to need more then just a external sound card. With that many channels on a sound card it will be way more then $200. Do you already have a mixer or do you need mic pres too?