Your only options in that price rande would be the ua-5, denecke ad-20, and a used mp-2. I am not sure how much you wil benefit from an outboard pre running into minidisc, but who knows, try it I guess. I would actually get the ua-5 if you are considering going the laptop route, as it has usb out as well as the others. If you go ua-5, make sure you get the caox out mod by doug at oade or the coax out is not active as a stand alone unit, which is what you will need until you get a lapt6op, dat, hd recorder, or what I would call a non compressed recorder
Sorry. OK, so now that we got all of that, onto the reccomendations. I did NOT like the pre in the ua-5, as it got loud when I cranked up the gain, and my mics require a good amount of gain to run the levels as hot as I like to. Now, that being said, a lot of people like the unit, as well as the fact that doug is working on some new mods for the ua-5's pre which should help. The mp-2 is wayyyy underrated as far as I am concerned, adding a lot of depth in the low end, sometimes to much, but...PLus, as you upgrade your gear, I think you will be happier with the mp-2 more so than the other units. One other thing I forgot to mention is that the ua-5 supports 24/96 if you are into that. I am not, as I can;t hear the damn difference, but m aybe later!
Feel free to ask more questions, I got all night!
Daryan Lenz