ewwww...the optiplex with the intel 810 chipset...got one of those at work...P.O.S is soo right! lol..
installed 98SE on it and it gives me the BSOD constantly! :p
Anyhue..I would go for the MAudio stuff as their drivers are a little more user friendly and support is good for them..Aardvark support isnt that great..most people tend to get annoyed with aardvark and their routing patchbay thang...I like the delta stuff over the aardvark stuff..but that's my opinion
Opus

i've had no experience with aardvark but i do own the 66/omni setup and i've got no complaints.
i would recommend it.

Thanks for the .02 guys. I think that is what I will end up with. I checked out your site opus, you are doing exactly what I hope to be doing in the next few years! Very cool... Do you think that this optilperplex will get me by for a while? Just untill my student loans for next semester come in. Do you forsee any huge problems with this card and that crappy chipset. Thanks Again...

Ben,

Atlhough I'm dealer (and therefore can't be trusted :) ), we've sold a lot of both systems, and both are pretty good.

However, I'll have to agree with these other guys ... we have had more complaints from customers about the Aardvark stuff who use XP than the M-Audio stuff. Probably because M-Audio's XP drivers have been out & working a lot longer .. since last November.

I bought the Maudio delta66 with omni I/O interface and like it a lot. I don't really have any use for the fx sends that it offers on the interface itself as I have a mixer but it is a nice option for someone who doesn't. the digital I/O is SPDIF which is semipro. Phantom power on both XLR/TRS I/Ps is nice. I find that the line/Preamps are nice and quiet as well for the price range. I've got the latency down so low that I don't really notice it existing. Although they claim that it has 6 individual O/P's or 3 stereo, I haven't figured out how to route multiple signals out individually at a time and am not sure at this stage if it is possible (at least in Cubase 5.1) i.e. address individual buses from the VST mixer to ind. O/Ps etc. Maybe that's me!! Cannot record 2 ind. I/Ps simultaneously yet either although I would imagine that you could otherwise there would be no use for 2 ind. I/Ps. The manual that comes with the hardware is not very thurough and mentions nothing of what I just mentioned that I can't figure out but the hardware makes sense anyways. 2 Ind. H.P. jacks are cute but if you have keyboards going into your mixer, you can't use them for monitoring everything (like I said, it's perfect for those who don't have a mixer)
I use XP and it is flawless so far. The interface software is handy too, has a lot of little options that may not nec. for standard music production (like changing your sample rate to 32KHz) but nice to have none the less. Wish it was rack mountable, takes up a little extra space on my desk because it's not. Level meters are lacking but many sound cards have none at all. Over all, I like it. When my own set up gets bigger and badder, I will prob. sell it and buy something more profesional but as far as the bang for your buck goes, I give it an 8/10.
good luck
Pandamonkey
P.S. I've used it for making radio ads for a local, small station and it was no probs.