Wish list: something like an E-MU 1616m PCIe with USB 3.0 instead of PCIe

Doubt you'll be able to get anything in your timeframe of several months that uses USB3.
I've seen (today) a RAID hard drive array that's USB3, and an external hard drive, but not much else so far.
FW and USB 2 are still the standards for external audio, and until USB 3 "takes off" (which isn't necessarily guaranteed), companies are likely to take the safe route and see if people are asking for it.

With audio interfaces like the 828, however, it's sort of a moot point. The 828 is fully operational with USB 2 or FW. You don't need USB 3 to work with it... therefore, what point would there be to simply adding unusable overhead/throughput to it?

How many tracks to you need to record at a given time and at what input settings?
Unless you need a fair amount (read: more than 16) of simultaneous input tracks @ 24/96KHz, current USB2/FW interfaces work just fine.

Take care,
- zevo

  Thanks for the helpful advice.  I figure it would be easier that way than
using a switch with two drives, each with its own OS and audio card, not to
mention trying to put a graphics card or two and two audio cards on one
motherboard.
 
  MOTU is already set for Windows 7 at a price I can afford, and I'm waiting for
March to get a 32nm quad core, anyway, so I figure I could wait and see if USB
3.0 (Light Peak?--probably later) shows up.

There's nothing I've seen regarding the new bus standards themselves that promise lower audio latency.

Unless you play midi drums, latency won't be a problem anyway If you get a good, solid interface that goes lower than 128 samples ASIO buffer, which I believe all but the most entry-level ones do.

I've got a Focusrite Saffire Pro 10, an interface that I know isn't among the favorites of the latency buffs on this forum. Nevertheless I can tweak it down to 6.5 ms roundtrip which is good enough for midi drums.

Sven