sorry this will be a long and pointless post.. lol 
I have a small setup in my apartment. Gadgetlabs 496 based Daw running Vegas on a Bp6 dualie celeron 533's. And also In my rehearsal space I have an ADAT setup with a mackie 1402. I'm looking to expand the studio in my rehearsal space. Wanting to go with another DAW setup eventually. The ADAT setup sounds great to me, but it's a Blackface near it's last legs, plus the amount of tape I'm eating up if rediculous with the amount that I've been using it.. lol. I have my tascam 424 monitored through the ADAT and the board, that pretty much stays in record all through rehersals, when something really cool starts happening I fire the ADAT up too. Idealy I'd rather have an Alesis or Mackie HD 24 track for the rehearsal space, too expensive for now though.
I just bought a RME digi 96/8 to slap in my current daw so that I can digitally get all the tracks from ADAT to disk. For a while I will be either carting the tower or the ADAT back and forth. (I have an extra monitor, keyboard, mouse I can leave set up) not so much of a hassle just moving the tower but I'd rather not.. lol. All this is fine recording myself or my band, but hopefully soon I can open up the works to some other bands, I haven't had a "working" space and studio to do that in a while, I'm chomping at the bit to play "engine-ear" instead of "recording musician"
alright enough background drivel here's what I'm thinking to get, just want to see if I'm on the wrong/right track.
New DAW: ASUS A7N8X mobo with XP 2400... 1 gig of ram. sweet.
This will probably end up in my apartment as a gamers/internet/DAW box with the GL 496 card for now. Dual boot 98 and 2000. I doubt those GL XP drivers ever get out.
I'l POP the RME card in my current DAW. And go with a ADAT interface to front it. choices:
Presonus DIGIMAX LT- I'm excited by this unit, 8 nice pres, A/D conversion, and you can bypass the pre in this box even. I could front the ADAT with it for a sweet portable rig. all this for about $700
Staudio ADAM 24 (like c-port without the card)- don't know much about this unit except it's cheap (like $300!), It's A/D/A, so I wont have to get a seperate D/A box or expansion card for the RME Digi 96/8. It has 2 onboard preamps, probably not great but i don't have to use them, I need the conversion more. How good can it be for $300? this would leave me money for mics and nicer preamp though- if the conversion is good then why not, but damn If i can find all really good information about this unit.
Presonus Firestation: Now this is an intresting option, especially since it is firewire. Since I'm moving back and forth this thing could be really cool. I could ditch the GL card pretty much. Seems like a hassle though. I'd have to run Windows XP for the yamaha firewire drivers and I'm not sure if they have it working with vegas. Of course I'd have to get two firewire cards to put in my boxes to take full advantage. One cool thing is that it's a standalone A/D converter without the firewire with 2 good preamps.
there are other options, Frontier Designs Tango. Alesis And Fostex make inexpensive analog to ADAT converters. I'm really searching for the best I can get for my dollar (who isn't) Mostly I"m looking for something that can give me a temporary solution, but still be excellent down the road. The presonus boxes seem to have that- like if I ever have money to blow on a laptop that firestation would be so cool.
The DIgi max- who couldn't use an 8 channel preamp? It's frustration though, in getting set up like I want it seems like I'm not going to far forward in sound quality. Just getting more ways to do the same thing. Seems like I'd be spending the money to take lateral steps, isn't that what we don't want to do?