im sorry but ive got to dissagre with mark on this one(sorry mate!!)
Outboard gear is very good , and does give a lot of warmth and carracter to your tunes but look how long outboard gear has been around!!

VST technology has only been around a few years and allready things are progressing at an allaming rate!!

Put it this way- PC's are becoming so powerful now that in a few years the technologys for computer music will be awe inspiring. The fact that your pc have more storage space than a warehouse, and more power than a virus c to produce 4000 voices and 1000 simultaneos arpegiators will mean that completely software run studios will be the way forward.

I can see in the not so distant future, studios wich have a pc and a one master controler to do everythin in your pc.

But at the moment, its all preffernce. Some people swear by Hardware and some people live for software. But what i think is is important is that u use what is comfortable for you to get the job done.