Since you are using a Saffire Pro which is a Firewire interface then you are stuck with using firewire so the comments above are really of no use to you....
Hi Jason,
FWIW, You are giving very poor advice.
The chipset of the FW controller is absolutely
*paramount* to achieving good performance.
To say otherwise... or to down-play this factor is setting the OP up for failure.
Saying that the Focusrite drivers are "good" has absolutely nothing to do with this.
Plenty of quality FW audio interfaces (with fantastic drivers) perform terrrible with a crap FW controller.
One can go to any support forum (for any DAW application) and do a search for folks having problems with FW audio interfaces.
In the vast majority of the cases, the end user was not using a good TI chipset FW controller.
With a tower/rack/cube, the end user simply adds a good PCI/e TI chipset FW controller... and the problem is solved.
With a laptop, that may or may not work. The express-card controller is usually the same chipset as the crap FW controller.
Thus, adding a TI chipset express-card FW controller doesn't circumvent the original problem.
If the OP were running a good USB 2.0 audio interface... and wasn't overly concerned about running heavy loads at ultra low latency settings... than many laptops would suffice.
Have you ever tried installing a MOTU Firewire audio interface with a Laptop that's using a Jmicron FW controller?
You infer it would work just fine in your post. The fact of the matter is... it won't even install... let alone work well.
OK... simple test for you.
Show some video of
any $500 laptop running a Firewire audio interface where you're playing back "Guilty" or "Catch Me If You Can" (from the Sonar 8 or 8.5 content DVDs)... completely glitch-free at a 64-sample ASIO buffer size.
Note that these projects are not super heavy loads. My several year old MBP can do this with ease.
Show the video...
@OP:
I'm not telling you what you want to hear...
But you need to know the factors involved with laptops and Firewire.
The issue is extremely well documented across many different audio forums.
If you want to use a Lenovo laptop, use a USB 2.0 interface like the FastTrack Ultra 8R... and it will be smooth sailing.
Regarding eSATA:
Connect a Samsung F3 1TB HD (in a nice eSATA enclosure)... and that'll net you ~135MB/Sec sustained.
Some laptops come stock with eSATA... some don't. If yours doesn't, then you can get an express-card eSATA controller.
Of course, that totally rules out the possibility of using an express-card TI chipset FW controller (which does solve the above issue with some laptops - depends on the express-card controller).
FW 400 HDs will top out at or just below 40MB/Sec
FW 800 HD will top out at ~70sMB/Sec
USB 2.0 will top out at ~ mid 30sMB/Sec
eSATA will give you the full speed of the HD. Use an F3 and you'll get 135MB/Sec. Use a Seagate .12 and you'll get 125MB/Sec.
Use a WD Black and you'll get 100MB/Sec.