M-Audio Fast track ultra 8r and Sonar questions (Jim Roseberry?)

Hello, been a while since i've posted here, but browse often.
 
I need to purchase a new audio interface w 8 xlr inputs for my bands rehearsals, we've been using the Alesis firewire iO26 for the past few years and it has worked great, but now the firewire connectors on the unit are going bad and most places want to much to fix.
 
I remember reading here a while back that best bang for buck interface is the M-Audio Fast track ultra 8r, i still see a few places online still have them and they are in the price range that we can afford, but think they have been discontinued since Avid bought m-audio. 
 
I remember Jim (the guru Roseberry) saying he liked it and it was one of his recommened choices in the price range? And since i need low round trip latency for our plugins this would be a great choice?
 
This interface would be perfect for what we need as we use all 8 inputs (usually 6) and 8 outputs ( for stereo heaphone mixes for each member) for rehearsal. And price range is right.
The computer we are using is a quad core intel (home built) with T.I. firewire chip on board
(i know the 8r is USB 2.0) , running win xp pro (sp3) 4gig ram, has worked great w the alesis interface for a few years, the audio buffer was set at 128 and that seemed to be fine for our band rehearsals, we run 2 guitars - Amplitube 3, 1 bass - Amplitube svx (or amplitube 3), 2 vocal Mics, Hi hat mic, and 2 inputs for Acoustic gtr and Keyboards (when needed) so we mainly use 6 inputs and drums with a drum pad kit using midi to trigger EZ drummer or Steven Slate drums.
 
My questions are:
1. Is this still the best bang for buck interface to use for my application?
2. I remember reading something here about the newer drivers for this unit that they changed something that got rid of the ultra low latency mode(check box)
since im using win xp is it just ok to use an older driver that has that feature?
3. What is version number of the most stable Win xp driver that has the (ultra low latency mode)
 
Any info would be greatly appreciated as i know some of you guys here use this interface,
Thanks,
Tommy
 
 
 
 

I have an MAudio Fastrack Ultra 8R.  I bought it when I had a problem with a firewire device.  Ultimately I dumped firewire and although the FT Ultra 8R works OK I wasn't impressed with the preamps in it, compared to the firewire device's preamps (the firewire device was a Focusrite Saffire Pro 40).  When the Saffire Pro 40 died, I bought a Roland Octa-Capture.  It is a couple of hundred dollars more than a FT Ultra 8R but it was worth it, for the extra features, lower latency and better preamps.

My FT Ultra 8R is now mostly "collects dust" in my recording rack as a "backup" unit.   I have Pro Tools MP9 that I occasionally play around with and as the MP9 version of PT's requires a proprietary device I use the FT Ultra 8R with that.

Thanks for the fast replys guys! And thank you Jim for your knowledge and experience, i know you make a living doing this so i really appreciate it (and next year when we get our new pc we will be ordering it from you) 

So after your recommendation i did some research on the audio box 1818vsl and even called a tech from presonus to get a few questions answered and it looks like the presonus unit is worth the little extra so we'll give it a shot and order one.
Thanks,
Tommy