HI, I can't help you with the PCI card information, but I can offer some advice with regard to a desktop vs. a laptop for recording.
If you're planning on doing recording as a career, invest in a desktop like a Mac Pro or one of the i7 iMacs. You can get the iMacs now with a solid state boot drive, which should make ProTools quite happy, as you have the option of installing a .5, 1 or 2 TB data drive. The Mac Pro has a very fast bus speed which is great for moving around multiple tracks of audio and it is designed to be a workhorse when it comes to media production. My music sessions will run upwards of 80 tracks and it's unlikely that a laptop running ProTools, even a tricked out one, will be able to handle that on the table tray of an airplane for an 8 hour mixing session. I tend to advise people away from laptops for hard core mixing and audio production as they can get overworked pretty quickly. Having said that though, if you're planning on recording in the field or setting up a recording session in a barn somewhere, a Mac laptop will do more than suffice for tracking. Just remember to use an external hard drive and a fast interface. Hope this helps, Kevin
