Anyone running Sonar X1 on a Laptop?

Check out either HP or PC Audio Labs. They both should offer laptops with your desired specs. I've used an HP workstation laptop with exactly those specs and it ran SONAR flawlessly, more or less like a portable desktop.

SP

Ah, very cool! Feel free to post any links or whatever to laptops you're looking back. I haven't used every model out there, but the HP workstation ran very well. Nothing like being able to put an 8-thread system in your backpack.

Sorry just noticed  a typo there. That should be

"I think their chipset is not recommended."

I just cant find any Laptops with Texas Instrument chipsets which are the all important chipsets for firewire use. I know Sony dont use them. I think they use a Via chipset but dont quote me on that but I know they dont use Texas Instruments Chipset in their Vaio range.

Thanks Tomixornot- Thats an idea I might pursue. However of course I will need a Laptop with an expresscard slot.

Its even been suggested to me to forget about Firewire altogether.

However I am reluctant to go that at the moment. Your expresscard slot suggestion is definitely a potential solution.

Scott- Thanks for your input. I know you are an expert in this area.

I am seriously coming around to the idea that maybe I should just forget about Firewire.

I only record one thing at a time and most of my songs would never exceed 30 - 40 tracks at the maximum. I do run external plug ins such as Addictive Drums. However I find most of my plugs dont give me any problems except Ozone 4 which works ninety per cent of the time but sometimes crashes if I change a preset during playback while playing back a whole mix.

I honestly dont know what to do. I was looking at Sony Vaios F series but ideally I would like a 17 inch screen. Also I dont know how well they perform as a DAW.

My experience has been Toshiba and my current Laptop is a Toshiba. It has served my needs very well.

However its only a dual core circa 2008 processor well what was called Dual core before i3 i5 and i7 came to be known on Laptops.

Then there are HP Laptops which seem good for media but I am hearing about a lot of overheating problems with them.

Basically I want an i7 processor. My Laptop should have at least 4 gigs of Ram. Of course the 7200 RPM hard drive. These specs are non negotiable. I also want a USB3 port and I would really like a 1080p display.

I really dont know if the custom made route is necessary for my requirements. It may be but it also may not be. Maybe a decent multi media Laptop is all I need.

I am still weighing up my options. Totally undecided at present.

IIRC, Jim Roseberry has said that some of the i5 machines are actually faster or better for a DAW than the i7.
You will be lucky to find a good new laptop with both US 3.0 and firewire.

I am using an HP Pvilion dm4 1165-DX. It has good DPC latency and a 500G 7200 HD. The next mdel up had a 750G HD but it was 5200. I have not used it extensively or with a high track count but with the Octa-Capture it does OK. It has an odd diplay resolution but still is OK. It came with 4G of RAM but has only two slots so to go to 8Gof RAM I will have to go with two 4G cards instead of adding two more 2G, which I would prefer, at least RAM isn't as expensive as it used to be.

Julien