The Tascam US 122 works well. I had been a fan of M Audios cards and they are good sounding, but their drivers are a nightmare and always caused me grief.

There are a few different softwares you should look at.

Sonar, Power Tracks Adobe Audition (formerly cool edit it does not record midi though.) Imyself am not a huge fan of Cubase, but others seem to like it well enough.
Terry

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jam on,
Terry http://imjazzed.homestead.com/Index.html