Audio Systems: mixer to lap top - soundcard?, high quality music, apple imac

Question
QUESTION: G'day Rob,
What kind or brand of sound card would best suit laptop to mixer? Also, any suggestions on best kind of laptop for my connection purpose?

ANSWER: What are you mixing and what level of quality are you looking for?

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: House, tek/house. High quality.

Answer
Well from my experience tek & house is the antithesis of high quality music because it's digitally recorded and processed, not that I have anything against that music. If you are not married to a platform then I recommend the Apple iMac. It is best suited for music mixing and there are a plethora of plugins like garage band. The package is so comprehensive that if you wanted to put it all together with a PC you'll end up spending more money and having more compatibility issues.