Ricoh Chipset on R61 - Is it really that bad?

Hi,

I recently bought a new R61 primarily for working with Ableton Live and general music making/performance.

For this setup to work, I need to purchase a decent external audio interface with MIDI I/O for the Ableton controller and preferably an array of audio I/Os too. After doing some research I decided on the Edirol RA-66 which even conveniently comes with a 6 to 4 PIN Firewire cable to connect it to the R61.

I then stumbled across some ranting forum posts from Thinkpad/Dell laptop users who are enraged that the Ricoh Chipset (which covers Firewire and PCMCIA for the R61) performs really badly and should be avoided at all costs. Since I plan to use this laptop for live music performances, I can't risk it being unreliable.

So I ask the Thinkpad Gurus...

1. Is the Ricoh chipset *really* that bad and can't be fixed by a firmware/driver upgrade?

2. If it is to be avoided, what's the best way to get around this? e.g. use a USB soundcard, or get a PCMCIA -> Firewire converter, or use a Firewire Audio interface that's tried and tested with the Ricoh Chipset

Tech spec is as follows:

Thinkpad R61
Vista SP1 (x32), Ableton Live Suite 7, 4GB RAM
***Planning on getting - Edirol FA-66 Audio Interface***

Any advice gratefully received!