[PlanetCCRMA] hardware question - USB and Firewire

[Roy Vestal]

Hi folks. I'm building a small home studio and I want to use CCRMA. My 
question is hardware related:

I, like most, have a limited budget. Although I'd like to go with a 16 
channnel AD/DA and an RME Hammerfall, I don't have the money for it 
right now. I'm also just starting so I don't need that kind of 
horsepower at the start.

I've been looking at E-MU's 1820, which will have the functions I'm 
looking with 8 channels in, 8 out, but I didn't see it on the ALSA list. 
Has anyone used or know if it's suppported using CCRMA?

What about the Firewire products out there? Like the Alesis MultiMix 
Firewire Mixers, or the Taskam Firewire Mixers?  These "all in one" 
units give me what I need in functionality, but I haven't set up a DAW 
before so I don't want to buy something that doesn't work. If I have to 
I'll run Windows, but I really don't want to.

TIA,
Roy