Laptop for Sonar

I'm just getting back into Sonar X3, haven't really used it since Sonar 3 a number of years ago. I'd like to get a laptop rather than being chained to my desktop for editing. I've looked at a number of gaming laptops, assuming that's where I'd find better sound cards and performance, but wouldn't mind finding something with a) less weight and b) better battery life. I wondered if anyone had any recommendations for solid Sonar friendly laptops.

Thanks. I've been looking at Asus - I like a lot of their peripherals. That and Alienware are on my short list.

Also, you need to budget for an external sound card, also known as an audio interface (sound blaster won't cut it).  The sound cards in laptops (and desktops) will frustrate you to no end trying to run a professional music app like Sonar X3.
 
Also, there will be a number of things that you need to do on your laptop to make it perform better with respect t real time audio, including turning off wifi, setting power management settings, etc.
 
 

I can see I have some more homework to do. I'd never heard of ADK Pro Audio, but just checked out their site - looks doable. Oddly enough, I pretty much live on Lenovo's at work - never thought of them as a possibility.

Gaming computers tend to put a lot of muscle into the graphics, which is not really where the needs of Sonar are.  Sonar needs memory, CPU, and if available - multiple disk drives, more than a super powerful graphics capability.
 
I would look for an i5 or i7 processor, with 8 GB or more of memory, and at least space for a 2nd disk drive.  (if otherwise unavailable, look for an eSata port, where you could hook in another drive that way).  In addition, many audio interfaces that connect using USB don't handle being plugged into a USB 3 port, so you may need to make sure at least 1 USB 2 port is available.  
 
I repeat that a monster gaming graphics adapter is not needed for Sonar use.  I routinely run Sonar just fine using the on-board graphics - not even having a graphics expansion card installed on my desktop.
 
You will also likely run into DPC Latency issues with most laptops, due to the drivers for the WI-Fi adapters.  The fix is to turn off or disable the Wi-Fi adapter just prior to launching Sonar, and when finished with your Sonar session, simply turn the Wi-Fi adapter back on or enable it.
 
Bob Bone

The reason I was looking at Alienware & Asus gaming rigs was for the CPU and RAM, not the graphics. They also both claimed soundcards a little above the norm. That said, I hadn't considered an external sound card, which should make things a bit simpler.  I've been buying PCs since 1984 and have probably owned just about every major brand since. One of my current desktops is an Alienware box and it has given me less trouble than any other Dell (or HP for that matter) I've owned.
 
 

@TerraSin - You are QUITE correct with the point about the gaming machines having desirable traits of generally higher-end processors and usually more memory - I was only trying to really indicate that the graphics part of the equation is not really the thing to focus on when choosing a computer for music production software, such as Sonar.
 
Thanks for adding that info with your post :)
 
Bob Bone
 

I've had really good luck with my HP Envy.  They are really easy to work on/upgrade, and you can get them spec'd how you'd like.  I've got a 4th Gen i7 quad core with 16G or RAM.  The fans are a little noisy compared to other models, but the last BIOS update they had seemed to fix alot of these problems.
 
The one advantage about gaming computers, is that having a Deseret graphics card takes load off your CPU for running graphics.  So not necessarily a gaming PC, but if you can find a computer with an i5 or i7 and a descrete graphics card either AMD or NVidia, it will take a huge load off your machine.  You have to manually set your descrete graphics to open with Sonar, otherwise it will default to the built-in Intel graphics, as Sonar doesn't do 3D rendering.