Advice needed before purchasing new audio interface

I have been using Sonar 8 and Sonar 8.5 with my Presonus Firepod.  Now I am considering buying a new audio interface for use with Win Xp32 (and probably Win7 later).
What I want to do is:

• Adjust input levels from the computer(software controlled)
  I want do do everything from the computer.
• I need more than 8 inputs at 88.2kHz
  Probably need at least 16 inputs
• A possibility of using on board mixer for zero latency monitoring

I have checked Motu 24 I/O and Motu 424 PCIe (which I can buy used at a ok price).  It looks like it can provide 24 track / 88.2kHz but I guess input levels should be controlled
by external pre-amp then ?.   I have 8 mic preamps in the Presonus but then I can't control the input levels via software.
24 inputs will be very nice. 

I have also looked at Focusrite and Presonus but it seems like bying hardware for 24 channels is more expensive than the Motu  solution.   Often hardware can provide many channels but often the price is reduced sample rate.  I could get 16 inputs if I bought a used Firepod but then I must record 44.1Khz.

There is probably a lot of other hardware I don't even know about.  I even consider V Studio 700 but its well over my budget and does not provide as many channels as I need.

Any suggestions for hardware would be appriciated.  

I bought two Roland Octa-Capture units two weeks ago and I really like them.
With 2 units you have:
-18in/18out USB audio interface
-16 individually configurable preamps
-2 channels of SPDIF in and out. 
        (syncing units is accomplished via spdif tying up one in and one out)
-zero latency direct monitoring configurable to 16 analog outputs.
-4 separate zero latency direct monitor sub mixes
-All options are controllable via unit and software mixer
-round trip latency as low as 7.5ms (48samples).
-latency at 256samples is 20-25ms round trip.
-will record on all 18 inputs simultaneously at 96kHz
Both units are connected directly to the computer via USB so it ties up 2 USB ports but after setup it is so simple. If I need 8 inputs or less, I turn on one unit, if I need more than 8, I turn on the second unit. It then automatically recalls settings and is ready to go without changing the setting on either unit, very slick. Configuring both units was very simple and took less than 10mins and you only need to do 2 unit configuration 1 time then it remembers the settings.

The preamps sound great, have low noise and Drive my (power hungry) SM7B just fine. The software mixer doesn't have LED meters but you can use on-unit screen or DAW for that. I am running Sonar 8.5 on WIN XP and drivers are great...It is a brand new unit so I expect great Windows 7 64 bit support when I switch. Good product, These units have been exactly what I needed.
They are 600.00 each right now.
-Jason

The Tascam us 1641 has 16 channels for under $300 and it works just fine, Haven't heard anyone complaining about issues. The info hear is out of date as it now supports 64 bit and W7

Main Features

• USB audio interface with 16 inputs and 4 outputs
• 8 mic/line inputs with phantom power and level indicators on front panel
• Two 6.3-mm balanced line/instrument inputs on front
• Four more balanced line inputs on rear panel
• Four line outputs
• Separate stereo 6.3-mm monitor output
• Stereo digital I/O (input: SPDIF, output: switchable between SPDIF and AES/EBU)
• Analogue and digital inputs can be used simultanuously
• 16-channel MIDI I/O

• Separate monitor and headphone level controls
• Zero-latency hardware monitoring
• USB 2.0 interface
• Up to 96 kHz sampling rate at 24-bit resolution without reducing the number of inputs
• Supports Windows XP, Windows Vista 32 and Mac OS X (10.4 and higher)
• Supports Intel Mac
• Includes Steinberg Cubase LE 5 (Mac/PC)
• Includes Tascam Continuous Velocity Piano (PC)
• 1-U rackmount chassis

Yes Jim, I never did get anyone else to test it on a better system than mine, I think they are chicken. But it is the least expensive of all other interfaces for that many channels and other than that one issue all else seems good as far as recording multi goes. I will keep mine for recording live bands and someday buy a 2 channel interface with good RTL too. One can never have too many toys.

Has anyone worked with any one of the 8 channel PreSounus interfaces? cant afford the 700R yet to go with the 700C. What about Cakewalk's 8 channel interface?