Hi! My name is John, and I am a musicaholic! Now that I got that out of the way. I picked up an older HP 8540w with Window's 7, 256 ssd and 8gb of of ddr3. I7 running at 2.6 ghz with turbo up to 3.3. I have installed Platinum, and working with a Focusrite 2i2. Off of the Focusrite I am going to run a Yamaha Mg10xu to mic my drums. I got gear and mics (everything but a good vocal mic, and I spent 2 hours reading a post the other day about the best bang for the buck on here). I did radio a long time ago, and my first studio at 13. I am not ancient, but I can still splice tape like nobody's business. I haven't recorded one thing yet, just installed all the software. My questions are: Does anyone think I will run into issues recording with this set up? Suggestions? I have other software questions about recording in Dolby surround and compatibility issues in Platinum, and Session Drummer 3, but I will post those in the software forum.I appreciate any and all feedback? Thanks for your time.

Hi John.  Welcome! 
 
You should be able to record just fine with that rig.  To make sure you have smooth sailing I would make sure Windows is completely up to date, the drivers for your Focusrite, and Platinum, too.  If you're comfortable doing it, it wouldn't hurt to check for a BIOS update for the motherboard. 
 
The one thing I would worry about is disk space.  256 Gb doesn't go very far these days (Windows and Platinum have probably already eaten a lot of that space up), especially if you're recording higher than 44.1 kHz/16 bit, and you'll probably want to record at 24 bit.  I would definitely look into getting an external hard drive ( at least a Tb) to store your recordings on.
 
Hope that helps.
Cheers
Bud
 

As for a vocal mic, I use a Rode NT1-A which is a nice, fairly inexpensive mic.  Comes with a decent shock mount and pop screen too.  But I also had mine modified by Michael Joly and now it's amazing.  Here's the link to his site if you want to check it out:
 
http://oktavamod.com/
 
 

Most of us use latency Mon by resplendence when testing dpc latency on a new daw.

Thanks for all the information. I will check out the Rode NT1-A, and check out latency MON by resplendence. I also think an external hard drive will be the way to go. Bios look good and all the drivers seem to be up to date. I would like to ask 1 other question? When you guys record your guitars, drums, bass (if you aren't using midi, or some other plug-ins or software), do you prefer to add your effects, like delay, chorus, compression, while doing a live track? Or do you run dry to the board (an old term I know) and mix there? My thought process is that if you have a good sound going in to begin with, there is less to do on the back end. Or, is this something I should post in another forum? Once again, thanks for all your help.

miadia04
Thanks for all the information. I will check out the Rode NT1-A, and check out latency MON by resplendence. I also think an external hard drive will be the way to go. Bios look good and all the drivers seem to be up to date. I would like to ask 1 other question? When you guys record your guitars, drums, bass (if you aren't using midi, or some other plug-ins or software), do you prefer to add your effects, like delay, chorus, compression, while doing a live track? Or do you run dry to the board (an old term I know) and mix there? My thought process is that if you have a good sound going in to begin with, there is less to do on the back end. Or, is this something I should post in another forum? Once again, thanks for all your help.

Record both and that way you have the original and one to play with, change and layer.
 

I try to do both record wet and dry. Sometimes the wet sound you get while recording is just awesome and sometimes, well... it isn't.
 
So, if you take a direct from your guitar to your interface, then out of your interface and through your pedals and into the Amp. Then Mic the Amp and record that. Now you have 2 tracks... guitar super dry direct from the guitar and mics in front of the guitar amp.
 
If the playing is awesome and the FX just aren't, you can now re-amp by sending the dry signal through all your FX and re-recording the amp or you can just use an amp simpleator in the computer. :P

The fx you apply with Sonar aren't recorded. To record fx you will literally have to add them before it hits your sound card, but usually more flexible to monitor with fx but record dry. Gives more flexibility later on as to which fx to apply.