Digital audio recording

I need sound effects for my various projects. So far the freebies on the net never quite get it.

I'm thinking of buying a portable digital audio recorder but the price is such that I better know what I'm doing before purchasing one.

Does anyone know about digital audio recorders and which ones are good? Most of them say digital voice recorders which is probably not going to work for what I want.

I'd like to be able to record sound effects and then d/l them to my computer via a USB cable. I have Sony Sound Forge so I can do a lot of post-processing and post-EQ work on the sounds once I get them.

I dont know much about sound recording.
But if you intend to record sound for your games / projects, why wont you consider using regular microphone instead of portable ones? Dont most people record inside a studio?
also might want consider the fact you can plug a mike into a laptop and still be portable to a certain degree.