Recommendations

Hi, I am getting a new computer put together and was wondering what the thoughts are for:
1. sound card
2. video card
3. I am leaning heavily to win7, but am open to win 8. (OEM or not?)
 
So far I have:
I7 4770
ASUS Z87 Extreme4
32G G-skill 1600
Coolermaster M2 620 bronze PS
Coolermaster 120M water cooler (best deal of this, $24 after sale and rebate)
Samsung 840 128G SSD
WD black 1tb sata3 HDD
ASUS cd/dvd burner
Fractal Design R4
 
On the video card, I don't game, so I really don't need the latest and greatest
 
I am not sure which way to go on the sound card though.
 
The inputs are: Roland Quad capture, Roland GAIA and VR09, Novation Impulse 25.
 
I currently have winXP, and am having issues with the Impulse/VSTs and Sonar talking to each other. I decided since Cakewalk doesn't support XP, that I would build a new computer and reload everything. (I am not gonna waste time and give myself headaches trying to get these issues worked out on this current computer.)
 
Thanks in advance
 
Doug
 

I initially used the internal video in my i7 3770 CPU.  It was OK as I don't use the system for gaming or much video.  The internal DVI video output failed (I don't know if it was a problem in the CPU or the motherboard, although I've seen other internet reports of problems with the CPU causing the problem) and I added a separate video card.  Both worked OK in Sonar but the WEI scores jumped up from around 5 to almost 8 for the video parameters by going to a separate video card. 
 
I have an AMD Radeon HD7770 video card with fans but the little bit of fan noise is not a problem in my installation.
 
 

I have a dual boot system, Win 7 Home 64 bit and Win 8 Pro 64 bit (on separate drives).  I have Sonar installed on both and it works the same on both Win 7 and Win 8. 
Once you get by the tiles and have an add on that takes you directly to the desktop (I have "Start8") it basically works just like Win 7 but as "Win 7 improved".   All my hardware device drivers for Win 7 work with Win 8, including my Octa-Capture and MAudio Fastrack Ultra 8R.  My Behringer BCF2000  was auto detected and "plug and play".  I did have to install my Frontier Tranzport in a Vista compatibility mode (Win 7 may have worked but didn't try it) but that was the only driver problem I ran across.

One step at a time.  Windows 8.1 will be out (public release) on Oct 17.  You can install Win 8 and whatever you want, as 8.1 is just an update (and many say what Win 8 should have been to start). 

You put a WiFi card into  a DAW?, Most of us struggle to disable WiFi as it is a notorious source for DPC latency problems.

I got a sound card as I was getting dropouts, (see my thread on dropouts) but it didn't fix the issue. I was trying different settings with ASRock A tuning (asrock motherboard) and found the standard setting gave me drop outs, performance setting instantly killed the audio engine and power saving setting everything is working. I ran the audio tutorial file through 2 times without a dropout. Soundcloud, youtube and Itunes are playing without dropouts.