Personally, I have used a Rode NT2A (around $400) that is plugged straight into my Scarlett 4i4 interface for the past however many years. Since the Focusrite line has had pretty decent audio preamps in them, and being a sort of tightwad, I haven't purchased any of the tube pre's on the market but if someone wanted to donate one to me, I wouldn't turn it down. Honestly, I've since found a few mics that are easily as good as the Rode, for much less.

That said.... there were a few folks back in my old Cakewalk Forum days who were using some very cheap condenser mics that sounded really good. Those mics were in the $60 range each and for home studio use, were outstanding quality to cost.

It's not necessary to spend a lot of money on gear to get a good sound. It's been said that if you took the average home recording enthusiast and put them behind the desk in a $5 million dollar state of the art studio, the results would still sound like a home studio production and conversely, giving a studio engineer a laptop and a condenser mic and a couple of plugins, you'd get a very professional sounding production. It's not always the gear. But take someone who knows what to do and how to do it and give them high quality gear and the results are nothing short of amazing.

A couple of years back, I had the opportunity at a songwriters convention to compare a new company's products. It was Gauge-USA microphones. They had their (around $100) mic set up so you could A/B it with a mic that retailed for around $1000 and another one that was $299 at the time against a $4000 studio mic. It was impossible to hear the difference, at least it was to my ears. The point being, for what you are doing, you don't need a fancy high dollar mic and preamp to get good quality vocals. Good quality vocals come from the gain settings in your DAW and more importantly, from YOU as the singer using proper techniques when singing.

Regarding the interface: Yes... Firewire is kind of outdated now. Always trying to find the right chipset in the computer that supported it was a job. I started with a firewire Saffire focusrite and it still works on the other computer. At the time it was the fastest thing out there but the times have changed. When I upgraded to W-10, I decided to go with the Focusrite Scarlett 4i4 USB and it's a great interface for my needs.

You can find my music at:
www.herbhartley.com
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