New sound cards in the house

Nearly a month after buying my laptop, I've moved onto stage 2 of Brad's mobile recording adventure: buying sound cards. Today I bought the Edirol UA-1EX for softsynth and general low-latency use on the laptop. And the Presonus Firebox for recording on the desktop as well as the laptop when I want to move it around. This is my first time using USB or Firewire audio devices so I'll try and record my thoughts and feelings as I set it all up and try it.