Buying sound card for laptop.

Hi. I've already bought laptop as I need things that takes little place. I'm a student so it's important for me, you know... moving around from city to city. I can't take my home (!?) computer with me every week 'cus it's big, I simply need laptop with good sound card that would allow me to work on every place I wish. So is it worth to buy outboard sound card (I dunno if it's correct name, but I hope you understand what I mean) or should I save my money and invest for something else? I really need computer 'cus it allows me to work smoothly with my MPC and I'm used to it. So do you have any ideas or solutions?
If it's good idea to buy outboard card, could you give me some names? The price don't have to be too cheap but also not too high, let's say around $250-400.

This really depends on what u need.

1.) Do u want a better soundcard just to improve ur laptop sound? Or do you also want to be able to record INTO the laptop? Or do you only want to edit samples with ur laptop?

2.) You want a mixer or an interface?

3.) How many inputs/ outputs u need?, multitrack/ stereomix?

what are you using to make music when you travel? software or hardware? if its just software, you could probably try downloading some decent asio drivers from www.asio4all.com and see what that does for you. if you are using an mpc or a keyboard, then like menco said, it depends on how many i/o's you need.

what is your setup

Well I always take my MPC to my flat, so I thought it would be nice to take laptop with me. I need computer mainly for chopping samples and I don't need many I/O's also I don't want to record to my laptop.

Yeah, you are definitely right. So any concrete suggestions ?

i would suggest, given your budget, the MOTU series of laptop soundcards. they have a cardbus insert plus a breakout box. other than that, maybe you should look at the Mackie Satellite? it's basically got the same specs as the M-Audio Firewire 410, but has a removable insert for travel. Plus its only like $150 USD, leaving enough money left over to buy a mic and some headphones.

http://www.audiolines.com/product.php?productid=17513

Hold out a little longer and save up for a MOTU Ultralite. Remember the number of inputs/outputs shouldnt be the only deciding factor. Drivers play a big part in the reliability and functionality of an interface and MOTU's drivers are solid.

One simple question and really amatour.
At the moment I thought I will save money for something more powerfull. If I will use laptop only for chopping samples, will soundcard affect sound in any way? It might be pretty simple for you but I was talking with my friend about it and he made me really confused :/.

yeah the soundcard(audio interface) will affect your sound depending on a few things. if you have firewire, i would go with a presonus firebox. i really liked mine. it had decent preamps for what it was and had a pretty good sound to it. also i think it is bus powered, which means that you plug it in to a 6 pin firewire port and you dont need an external power adapter. add to that a breakout box with a midi in and midi out as well as s/pdif, and you have a pretty powerful little box.

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/FireBox/reviews/

i see them on craigslist for $150 all the time so i would watch that...