laptop and interface for live performance

[patternbased]

i am planning on putting together a live set and i do a lot of looping (previously used the roland gr50 pedal). i would like to use ableton 8 on a laptop. i am undecided between mac book pro and a pc laptop and i am not sure what the ideal sound card might be but i only would need a couple ins and a couple outs if i went with a mixer that i could use the aux sends on to get signals from my various instruments over to the sound card. or i guess i could skip the mixer alltogether if there was a sound card with more ins. does anyone have any suggestions? so basically i am looking for a kickass laptop that can easily run ableton live 8 and a nice portable audio interface for it.

[Dysanfel]

I use a Presonus FP10, my MBP, and Live 8 which handles vocals, direct bass, submix of synths (Mackie LM3204), 12 string acoustic guitar, backing tracks, and video with full automation of effects (delay, chorus, reverb, ect..). The FP10 also handles the output mix for FOH, the drummer, and to the QSC powered monitors we use on stage.

In my 3 years of using my MBP (since Live 6) I have had a 100% success rate. My keyboard player uses a Vista HP notebook for just for live soft synths and constantly has problems even at rehearsals. We plan on getting him a white MB very soon. Others may have a different story, but I would never trust a Vista notebook to handle my gigs.

If you just need 2 ins and outs I would suggest a Macbook and an Apogee Duet.