Recording tips, advice, gear and how to

Hey good people.

I have struggled to find a good way to record my music. I just bought an alienware laptop and would like to record my guitar into my computer. I have a copy of Sonar 8 with Session drummer. I am learning how to make drum loops.

When I record my guitar into the direct in on my laptop there is a lag, which make it's a PITA to record things...I know this is a common problem because my sound card is not too good.

Can anyone recommend a recording unit/external sound card good for recording my electric geetar into my computer? From what I understand I will need an external sound/card/input device in order to record more efficiently without delay.

I am not looking to spend more then $200 bucks. I know this might be a problem but with all the guitar stuff I buy my wife is about to murder me.

I just bought a POD 2.0 for recording purposes (not a big fan of the "digitalness" but it's a start.

Hopefully we can use this thread to help people record and share some stuff on this board. Then hopefully we can get more of our stuff on here for people to hear.

I recently have gotten my hands on an M-Audio fast track box and that thing works wonders. There is a little bit of latency(with computers I don't think that will ever go away) but it is very little. They aren't that expensive(like just over $100) but are totally worth it. Plus you could run your POD through it. It also depends on your computer as a whole though, since if it's slow all the time, the latency can't really be improved beyond that. I would suggest that you close out of everything you might have open, then open your DAW and go from there. The less your computer is doing outside of the DAW the better the latency will be. You may also want to look into this guys amps: http://lepouplugins.blogspot.com/
It will also allow for a re-amp later if you weren't happy with your tone(You also need to find cabinet emulations here:
http://www.esnips.com/doc/c9125127-60bd-4472-9aec-7e2d868011d4/650-Assorted-Cabinet-Impulses)

I prefer the all computer set up since it allows for a re-amp later.
Downloading or using your POD to emulate a Tube Screamer or a Boss SD-1 will help greatly if you are using a VST amplifier(tightens up the sound by turning gain down but output up).

Hope this helps you out man.

Case

I have old M-audio 2096 soundcard and my latency is with asio drivers 6.440 milliseconds... well, my ears are not that sharp that I reconize it :)

btw, quite cool highgain vst's in that link ^^