Frank, thanks for your valuable input.

I, of course, have a PCI slot on my desktop, but I was considering the firewire since I may someday have a laptop, and so thought it would be great to just invest in one interface for both(in addition to the
easy connectivity). The PCI is only if I decide to get a six-pack PC instead of laptop. So I just wanted to weigh the pluses and minuses of each.

From your comment about having advantages
for having more than one sound card, are
you implying that a single host with several
soft synth plug-ins using one soundcard is not recommended?