mixers to go with an 8I/O soundcard

[track7]

Hi i am going to be building a new home studio in my garage. I am giong to make it multi-track based around my PC so I can record the rhythm section (bass drums maybe basic guitars) or horn sections together, and then overdub later.

I've been looking at the various soundcards and they all seem good, but the problem i see is getting the XLR/line inputs into the soundcard...am i going to need a hardware mixer?

I am guessing so...so if anyone knows which mixers have direct outputs for multi-track please let me know. Cheapest is preferable!

My other confusion is where to output from. I am going to be doing all the mixing and processing etc inside the computer so I have no need really for the 8 outputs...could I just use 2 of the outputs for monitoring/listening?

I am also going to be using a yamaha sw100xg for my synth sounds...this card is also good because it has a digital loopback to record all audio/synth sounds onto 1 stereo WAV file for mastering to CD. Would it be possible to route the outputs of the multi-track card to the sw1000 to record a stereo master (with the aforementioned synth tracks)

Sorry if this doesn't make much sense...i am trying to get it figured out in my head! if anyone can help that would be great