[LAU] CPU friendly hardware

[Joshua Boyd]

I'm looking to replace a M-Audio 2496 PCI with either a USB or FW
interface.  

The hardware is marginally fast enough as it is, so I'm concerned that
actually switching may push things over the edge.

In particular, I've tried using a Line6 PODxt as a USB output interface,
but periodically (particularly when playing video or flash) I get loud
bursts of noise, that I interpret as being the computer failing to keep
up with feeding it.  Maybe my interpretation is wrong.

Might FW be more CPU efficient, or do I really just need another PCI
card?