8 had several issues that weren't rectified until 8.3.1
 
8.5 was a significant upgrade culminating in 8.5.3
 
Sonar 6 was updated to 6.2.1 and at the time, was a pretty damned good program.
 
My advice?
 
Stick with what you've got until you're ready to embrace a full 64 bit environment 

Hey guys,
I Have Sonar 8 now. Bought it for 32.- with a tutorial DVD. It was supposed to have been previously registered, but for some odd reason it let me register it. It recognized my previous installation and transferred all the settings I had without a hitch.On top of that I was able to install all the updated up to 8.3.1 Great! There was also a "Content update" which was pretty large about 400 MB . I'm not sure what that was, but I installed it anyway.
One thing was strange . Sonar 8 came with NI Guitar rig 3 which also installed as a standalone version on my desktop.
When I try to open it I'm given 3 choices. Demo, Buy,Register. The demo is active only for 30 minutes and the settings can't be saved. So it's pretty much useless.
I'm confused, is this just a teaser to get me to buy it or is it only the Standalone version that they are trying to sell? Is there a plugin for that program that might be fully functional as part of the Sonar installation? When I click on Register, I get "no internet connection available" and when I visit their website there is no reference to this software.Not a big deal, for the kind of music I like I don't really need a million effects.But still, I'm curious. What is the deal with this software, why is it on the disc as a separate program?
 

You get a serial with Guitar Rig 3 LE. Go to Native Instruments site and register your copy of Guitar Rig 3 with NI. After you create an account and register Guitar 3 LE, you can install and run Service Center, enter your NI account info, and Service Center will give you a download link to the most up to date version of Guitar Rig 3, and authorize Guitar Rig 3 LE for you to use without the limited Demo mode. But the version of Guitar Rig that comes with SONAR 8 is a Limited Edition (LE) version. NI was hoping users of the LE version would upgrade to the full Guitar 3 version for an additional price.
 
Hope that helps.

I looked for a serial number but I can't find it. There was no documentation in the Sonar 8 box. Just the DVD and the serial number for Sonar 8. Does that mean i won't be able to register the guitar rig, or is the activation only for the standalone part of the program?

A serial for Guitar Rig 3 LE came as a sticky on the disk paper that the Guitar Rig 3 disk came in, but if you tell Native Instruments you have SONAR 8 (but don't have a serial for the Guitar Rig 3 LE that came with your SONAR 8), they may give you a serial for Guitar Rig 3 LE.
 
SONAR 8.5 comes with Guitar Rig 4 LE and there is a serial for that in a user's Cakewalk Store Account.
 
You may be able to contact Cakewalk and get a serial for Guitar Rig 3 LE (since you were able to successfully register SONAR 8), cause I think for Guitar Rig 3 LE, the serial just came on a sticky that was on the disk paper the Guitar Rig LE disk came in.
 
Hope that helps.