1.Mic - If you want cheap with great quality for the value, I'd say the MXL 990. It's an amazing sounding condensor for only about $60. I have one and it sounds great. If you have a bit more cheddar, consider the Shure KSM44. $700, it's a terrific mic. Alot of people have been very impressed with Shure's foray into condensors with the KSM line. Don't forget a good dynamic mic if you don't have one. The ol' favorite Shure SM57 is a great mic, works on everything. I use it for guitars, bass, kick, snare, and it's brother the SM58 for vocals. Great all-around workhorse mic.
2. Pre-amp - Again, cheap but good. Behringer Shark DSP110. It has phantom power, built in compression, works good live or in the studio, and is only about $80. I find the Behringer pre's are good value for the money, and sound pretty good. If you want to go more high-end, the Blue Tube stuff is pretty good from what I hear. And some of the better mic-pre's you'll find are the Avalon stuff. They have a mono mic pre (This stuff rocks) for $1500. Pricey, but great quality.
3. Sound Card - I don't know alot about Macs, so I can't say much here. You'll want at least 24-bit 96kHz nowadays. If the Mac has that standard, then you'll be fine. MOTU makes good stuff, knda geared toward Macs. I've hard good things about PreSonus. They have two pretty decent soundcard/interfaces out, 1) the Firebox, which is 2 input, phantom powered, for $400, and 2) the Firepod, which is the same pretty much, but with 8 inputs, 8 outputs, and goes for $600. Both have mic pre's, which means you don't have to buy them seperate.
4. Hard Drive - I'd say any 7200rpm Firewire HD, that's 100Gb or more would be good. They actually have Firewire 1 Terabyte drives out now, for like $800! That's 1000Gb!
Anyone with more input/knowledge, chip in! I'm the budget guy, so I would't know what to do with $3500 to burn. To quote Napoleon Dynamite, "Lucky!"
