My first rig-mobile or other

[MCreel]

I am new to digital/pc recording. I have done good research so I generally know what I've bought and will buy, but I thought some of the experienced techs could help me out with what I need, what I did wrong, etc, in my procurements.

Laptop - Inspiron B130, Intel Celeron M370 (1.50GHz/1MB Cache/400MHz FSB)
- 1GB,DDR2,533MHz,2 DIMM, for Inspiron 1300
- Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900, for Inspiron
1300/B130
- 80GB Ultra-ATA Hard Drive, forInspiron 1300

Interface - Firepod (will add a second pod for live recording of larger groups)
- Dynex PCIMCIA 2 port firewire notebook card

Software - Just ordered Cubase SX3 (the bayview package)

My real questions are:
1) Is the RAM on my laptop expandable?
2) Do I need/should I buy an external HD?
3) What other equipment would you say is necessary for live recordings of:
a) singer/songwriters with 1-2 acoustic ins, 1-2 vocal ins, poss light drums
b) Full rock band with 5-6 drum mic, bass, 2 elec guit, 1 acoustic, 2 voc
4) What mics are good "live" mics for any purposes I listed?

Thanks for your input! I'm super excited about this project.

 

[MCreel]

Bump...cause I'm keenly interested in some ood input.

I realize its a lengthy request, and there's a lot of room for variation in what I should/should not buy etc.

Givens are things like headphones, etc. But I'm looking for what items people think are a "given" and I havn't thought of them, and also which specific product I should consider. IE "This pair of headphone is better than that one."

Thanks guys. Sorry for all the Q's. I'm not a recording novice, but I am a PC recording novice, and a recording noob in general.

 

[Cyanide-Depende]

Ram in laptops is expandable, but with a celeron processor your going to have some CPU issues, celerons are pretty slow, basily, a celeron processor is a fancey way of saying pentium II. I have a toshiba laptop with dual P4 3.8GHz and 1 Gb of ram, and I run into some problems when running certain VST's like SIR, or if Im using alot of different compressors/Eq's/Effects

External HD? short answer, Yes. Long answer, get a faster desktop with a 2nd internal drive, less HD latemcey etc.

Live mics? SM57 is the generic Live instrument Mic, SM58 is the genereic vocal live mic, theyre both pretty good, and sound ok for live use, sometimes I use the 57 in the studio along side other mics.

Id say save up alittle and get a newer desktop computer, you can get a decent one for less than $1000 to start off with.

Hope I helped alittle,
-C$

 

[MCreel]

cool. Thanks for the input. I also have a desktop that I plan to use for mixdown after I have recorded the initial audio. the desktop is more capable than the laptop by about twice as much in terms of the specs.