laptop audio interface

[jucas]

I've been looking at going this route rather than the 4 track analog route I'd been contemplating, andhad a couple questions about the type of connection, as well as a few specific problems.

1)
First, firewire vs usb 2 vas pc card (emu 1616m).

The way I understand it is that firewire and usb 2 have theoretically similar transfer rates, but usb 2 is less likely to actually achieve those rates and other devices will slow them down more significantly? Is that close to correct?

Also, should we expect to see firewire 800 interfaces in the near future or is that going to be such a high rate of transfer that one would need a very large setup to make it worth while?

Finally, where does the emu 1616m fit in to the picture? It sounds like one would be able to expect the same rate as you could get from firewire but I couldn't really find the specs.

2) product comparison now

I have been looking at the presonus firebox vs m-audio 410 vs emu 1616m

They are all about the same price range for me (i'd need a pc card to adapt for firewire) and all seem to have farily similar features. I was wondering if anyone could share some of their experiences with these products?

I probably won't need to go much beyond 2 channels, although I like that the firewire boxes seem to have the ability to chain together for expansion.

I had been leaning towards the presonus as it looks the simplest (which to me means easiest) and i would assume that less features in the same price range means better quality.

Any input or a better comparison would be greatly appreciated as I'm to new to this to fully grasp the differences between these units.

Thanks!

[tZer]

My experience with the the FW410 from M-Audio.

What I found was on a PC running XP Pro (not laptop) with really hearty resources (512 and up) RAM and 2.5Ghz Processor, the FW 410 did quite well. When I got a PCMCIA Firewire card for the business-class (IBM Thinkpad - XP Pro) laptop that had 512m RAM and a 1.8 Ghz processor, I got less they reliable results. The computer would lock up frequently lock-up and I pretty much could not use it.

[jucas]

Thanks for the input! those specs sound alot like my laptop and an upgrade is way out of the question. Anyone else have a similar experience with the other two options?