yeah, as they say, whatever you feel works for you, but things which i personally like to have on outboard is:

a ****in nice analogue filter - thats somthing you can really hear the diff
a decent desk (mack. or better) - cos you need a warm sound when you crank the gains - very imporatnt for techno i personally think.. plus the lush eq
sturdy soundcard
Decent monitors
good outboard compressor / channel strip - like an ivory or somthing again for that warmth and fatness...

basically cheap outboard and you generally might as well use the pc, its when you start spendin dolla that you hear the diference....