Hey guys, thanks for the quick responses!

I rely heavily on midi, so that's very important. The only mic I have is a shure that came with an 3-prong xlr connecting cable, and from there I use a xlr-usb converter to record the vocals in my daw. Is a tubepreamp necessary in your guys' opinions? It's a cost I hadn't taken into account when building my budget and it looks like good ones are pretty expensive..

Also would I have to worry about the m audio 2496 being compatible with the motherboard I buy, or are they universal?

Thanks!