Before I bought my HP Elitebook I bought a HP NC6320 which I still have and use for live recordings. I’ve recorded 24 tracks of 24 bit audio with no problem via a M-Audio Profire 2626, Presonus Firestudio 2626, and with my band I record 14 tracks through a Phonic Helix Board 18 universal (via firewire). The NC6320 has a built in TI chipset mini firewiore port that works perfectly as well as Cardbus AND Expresscard slots. Just make sure you get the Core 2 Duo 7200 CPU and at least 2 gig of ram.
Here’s one now:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-NC6320-Intel-Core2-T7200-2-0GHz-250GB-HD-1GB-Mem-DVD-RW-XP-Pro-SP3-136-/271285652166?pt=Laptops_Nov05&hash=item3f29e28ac6
As for your other post, with a NC6320 you could pickup a M-Audio Profire 2626 or Presonus Firestudio 2626 used for under $300 and have 8 mic pres, 16 channels of Adat (for expansion) and midi.