Multi tracking PC's?

I would like to do some multi track recording but dont want to spend thousands on equipment. So I wonder how effective my PC would be. My net surfing showed me lots of stuff, "plug your guitar right into the mic port"!!
Any musicians out there that can lead me in the right direction? Any good software out there and what do I need hardware wise to get my strat into my PC?

You would need to buy a professional audio card. While you could record with a soundblaster (you'll need a 1/4"-1/8" converter, and plug it in LINE IN not mic), there is a huge delay from when you strum the guitar to when you'll hear the sound come out of the speakers. If you're using an acoustic, it won't really matter. But you're still probably not getting top notch recording quality. As far as multiple tracks, any good software will be able to do it such as Cool Edit.

I've started using a Mac Mini for this stuff...garageband owns.

But, for PC you can slide by with a SBAudigy2 with only about a 5 or 10 millisecond delay. For just multi-mixing, any card is fine...it's just when you start trying to play real-time with effects you will notice a big delay.

There are lots of apps out there for this stuff too...hard to decide what to use but I like the little app that adobe makes. Simple and does just what I needed it to.

I went ahead and got the M-Audio firewire solo that has a guitar input and a low-Z mic input. It is fabulous but it was $200. I got that because it works on both pc and mac and my main pc is now a laptop. For a desktop PC I suggest a Creative E-Mu because it's only 100 bux and does a good job with post processing your input (ie. adding effects to your electric guitar input in real-time)

good luck with it