I've recently gone through these decisions. Don't have time to write a detailed response at the moment, but in brief I'll say that I got a Presonus Firebox (supposedly better sound quality than the lower end M-Audio interfaces (?)), a Rhode NT1-A large condensor mic (supposed to be a lot of mic for the money, with very low background noise), and a Rhode M3 small condensor mic (got for $1 in a promotional deal along with the purchase of the NT1-A).
I'll try to remember to come back to this to give more of my rationale when I have more time to write.
Meanwhile, you might take a look at the "Recording in Progress" subforum over at
http://www.tdpri.com . This is a pretty active forum with some very helpful and knowledgeable people. Here is the link to that subforum:
http://www.tdpri.com/forum/recording-progress/
There are also some very knowledgeable people here at AGF (I'm not one of the experts).