Looking for hardware suggestions

what is the most you can spend?
 

there's just not a lot of range at that limitation.
 
in other words, everything is about the same quality as everything else,
at that price range.
 
but literally ANTYHING would be better than a realtek and/or blaster.
 
http://www.musicradar.com...udio-interfaces-570850

Perhaps my limit is unrealistic then. I was thinking in the $200 range as that is what the Focusrite2i4 and roughly equivalent interfaces from Steinberg UR22 and Tascam US2x2 were costing. The 2i4 had 4 outs though so why I was leaning toward it.
 
To make sure I understand, these would not be any better than what I have now or may not work at all? What would you all consider an entry level price range?

I would like to keep the 7.1 system but that is not really critical. At his point I had rather get the glitches out of Sonar and the vsti's than worry about movies and games. I think I'm going to start with a 4x4 interface of some brand and then get a set of monitors for it later if I find I can't live without the 7.1 system.
 
I will check out the Presonus boxes as well.
 
Thanks for the suggestions!

Behringer has improved quality across the board in the last few years, IMO.  it will likely be a good unit for you.

My primary decision was based on the 10 outs (8 not counting the spdif ports) that didn't require another interface of some sort. The price. Also, the firewire port that "should" offer less latency. ASIO based drivers was another positive.
 
I agree about the popularity though as I just stumbled across it. I too am skeptical but the limited reviews I was able to find were mostly good. Of course there were the few negative ones about receiving DOA units or those that went bad fairly quickly. If I get it and find out it is crap then I can return it. Supposedly it has a 3 yr warranty if something happens down the road (hopefully B&H is an authorized reseller).

they still don't supply drivers for everything.  there are still some devices they point users to ASIO4ALL.
 
but this particular one does have drivers.  I'll be curious to know how well they work.

For those that may be interested...
 
I got the Berhinger FCA610 the other day. While I have no basis to compare it to pro gear I am able to share my experience with sound cards.
 
Install:
Installing of the drivers and unit went fairly smoothly. There was some unplugging and replugging of the unit and unit config to get the drivers to see it. But it was not too difficult.
 
Output:
Overall the sound quality is magnitudes better than the Soundblaster or Realtek cards. The sound is much cleaner and the stereo soundstage is greatly improved. I don't have the glitches that I was getting with the sound cards. So far, it works flawlessly in Sonar and other apps with a qualifier. Due to things like EAX and simulated 7.1 from stereo sources that were done by the soundcard, those no longer work. Of course, I can still do surround processing in those apps that support it. I kinda miss the surround emulation but the better sound quality more than makes up for the loss.
 
Input:
Again, it is much better and cleaner and more open/airy sound than with the SB/RT inputs. No issues in any software so far with the inputs. I rarely use them anyway but nice to know there are there when needed...
 
Conclusion
It fit the bill for what I was looking for considering the environment and equipment I had. While one of the points for getting it was the firewire connection, I found my board did not have a firewire port onboard. Seems like it has all other modern PC connections known to man but no firewire. I haven't had any issues with the USB2 connection so I may not actually need the firewire. With USB2, the ASIO drivers are showing a round trip latency of 15.8ms. Since I'm not having issues I'm guessing that is good enough.
 
Given what I was using and the improvements I have seen I would definitely recommend the unit. Like always, your mileage may vary.
 
Thanks for the suggestions though people! In researching your various units I was able to run across this one. While it may not be as good as those that you suggested, your suggestions will be seeds for any future upgrades.
 
----edit----
Typo corrections. sigh