Either a Delta-44 or 66 would be good for you.
And yeh, dont run your Mic to your Board then to the pre then to the soundcard, you will never get your levels right, become frustrated with all the noise, and give up. I am a first hand loser when it comes to that.
When I first got into this, I spent WAY to much money with out really learning how to use this. Well not WAY to much money, but yeh, I mean I had a MOTU 2408mkII, Art Pro Channel Pre/Comp/Eq, Mackie 1402, varoius other rack stuff, a hand full of mics. Just kind of went over kill. And the main problem was, is that I had the mind set, of that if I bought it, I MUST use it for everything. So I ran my Mics to my Mackie, to my Art Pre (The Pro-Channel, is a 2space rack mount) to the 2408, and could NEVER get my levels right, and when I did, it was SO NOISY. Now even tho I still really dont know TO much about my stuff, I have toned it down and I am now happy and my equipment suits my needs. Went from the 2408 to a Delta 44 (kind of kicking my self in the butt, but hey), have a small Beh mixer (just use it from headphone mixes) a small rolls headphone "amp" (more like a splitter),
a M-Audio DMP3, a JoeMeek Mq3 (cant quite remember the name, the small JoeMeek pre, will probably ditch this for a Grace 101 tho), Presonus Bluemax, still a bunch of mics (just got a Rode NTK

. My main point is just because you have the equipment dont think you need to use it for everthing you do.