[albee1952]

Just one opinion here. The 002 line is viable, as long as its dirt cheap(works all the way up to PT10, but will not work with 11, when it comes out-and nobody knows when that will be). 003 is viable and a decent option, if the price is right(and it SHOULD keep working with PT11). Nothing wrong with MOTU or several other hardware choices(like RME and Focusrite), but there is a certain elegance or ease of integration when using Digi/Avid hardware(you don't need some monitor/routing utility).

While you may still find a motherboard with a PCI slot, you would be stuck on Windows XP. I would opt for Windows 7 64 bit, with a new interface. And, if you can get your hands on the HD version of Pro Tools 9 or 10 software, that would give you all the features of HD(minus the TDM processing power) or non-HD Pro Tools, WITH the CPTK(a $2000 upgrade). In either case, a modern computer with lots of RAM(12GB or more) you would be able to allocate your extra RAM(Pro Tools is a 32 bit app and ignores anything over 4GB) to caching of audio(which loads all the audio for your session into the extra RAM for improved performance). RAM cache also allows you to run sessions from slow drives(which you cannot do otherwise).

Any new hardware option would likely allow you to keep using your external pre/converter you already have, and your old sessions SHOULD open on a new version of PT(which would then prompt you to save in the newer format).