I am near Pantip Plaza which is reputed to be one of the cheapest electronic marts in Asia. I also need a soundcard, and to tell the truth, I have been busy with school for the past couple of years, so I am kind of out of the loop (no pun intended)and I do not know anymore what is hot and what I should avoid.

I use Live and I may go back to Pro Tools, now that I apparently don't have to buy their hardware. I did not look for soundcards, yet, but I walked around today and it looks like I can get anything I want configured. I rarely record more than two channels at once and my track counts typically do not exceed 24, so I do not think I need the biggest beast in the plaza. What kind of specs should I look for that is a good mix of performance and value? I am hoping to go back tomorrow.

Some questions I have are:

Do I still need firewire for decent speed or is USB fast enough?
What's the best laptop processor?
Do any laptop HD's run faster than 5400 these days? Are they worth it?
Should I get an external drive? I want to keep my rig portable.
Is there anything else hot these days that I don't know about?

Thanks, I know these are newbie questions. I am not reallly a newbie,just a very rusty oldie.

Thanks!