Larry. I don't have Sonar.

The "Input/Output" references I was making had to do with Windows.

No, I could find no Realtek interface whatsoever - only what lies under the Windows Vista "Sound" icon.

Not to waste this thread - and banking on the future when I may be able to afford a new laptop: Is the purchase of an external, dedicated interface required for basic operation of Cakewalk? Mind you, I have no interest in anything fancy and mostly avoid working with MIDI. All I need is to record multi-track audio and then mix it down to mp3.

So, can a modern, stock laptop - for instance a $500 Dell - work with Cakewalk using its integrated soud card?

PA9 and other Cakewalk apps do not require a separate interface, at least not for audio recording.  The built-in soundcards can handle it.  Depending on what kind of external midi keyboards or sound modules you have, you might need a (likely external) midi interface.

Many people will tell you that built-in soundcards (like the RealTek) are not very high quality and that's an issue for many people.  If you get acceptable results, then go with the built-in soundcard.

You should take note that PA9 was last officially supported on Windows ME.  I've been running it fine on WinXP for years and many, including you, run it on Vista and Win7.  Some have not had good luck with PA9 on Vista and Win7.

You don't need a lot of CPU horsepower to do multi-track audio recording unless you get a lot of tracks with multiple real-time effects.  From what you've written, most any modern Win7 laptop would handle your situation.

--Larry