Ok well I've been looking up interfaces and I am still not certain which one to go for. The Focusrite Saffire 6 USB seems to be quite good for a small price though... How well does it work with Sonar X1 with Windows 7 x64 Home Premium, and how good is it in general? Has anybody who has one/has had one experience problems with it similar to mine (BSOD's, noticeable latency)?

As I read this, I recognize that I have "concerns" about using my laptop with X1 (X2 maybe sooner than I imagined), and it being up to snuff -requirement wise. I plan to use it for a while and build a new desktop, on par with Jonesey's. My wife and I are planning to "winter away" from our northern lower Michigan home and this laptop seemed to be a good desktop replacement from my old setup (P4 XP Sonar 5.2 PE). When I read the minimun requirements, they don't (at least to my level) really offer a comparative laptop "basic".
  Also, since I like the Scarlett 18i6 (when I retire my Tascam US1641), what affect will usb3 have on interfaces? I can't recall seeing any that come "3" ready-capable, yet. I have this other "wondering" about Thunderbolt becoming a PC option sooner than maybe I imagine! Kind of like the new Sonar X2 announcement!
Any thoughts or comments? Thanks Michael

LabDog

JonBoh


Well thankyou for all the advice everyone, but after fiddling around with settings I have found out that it actually is my E-MU 0204 causing the BSOD's! For some reason whenever it is plugged in and I start messing around with effects (or even press play a few times) it will cause Sonar to stop responding and later on the BSOD. When it isn't plugged in, Sonar actually runs fine (maybe slightly slow, but no dropouts or BSOD's.) Is there something I am missing or will I have to get a new audio interface? Or is the computer affecting the performance of the E-MU?
- I tried changing from 24-bit to 16-bit but playback won't work in this mode for some reason.
- Also, I have installed drivers but they may not be the latest ones (if not then I am unsure where to find them.)

The others make some interesting points but you may be able to work with the E-MU since you've already invested in it. It's very likely that your E-MU is being affected by a conflict with your motherboard's Universal Serial Bus and another component on the board; possibly the Video Controller or Network Controller. 


Issues such as this can possibly be resolved in adjusting the IRQ assignments on the board... However it might take a bit to find the right combination which makes the system happy.

There does seem to be a conflict with a 'High Definition Audio Controller' and a 'USB Universal host controller'. 
How do you go about changing assignments in Windows 7? People seem to think you can't do it in Windows 7 because it is system managed by ACPI. I don't know if they are right or not...

daveny5

Luteman

on a quite old ASUS P5 system with a Core 2 Quad Q6600 (2.40GHz) and 8GB of RAM, with no problems with dropouts. I run it under Windows 7 Pro 64.

Quite old? 

OK, Dave - very old  Still works a treat, though.


And for the OP, +1 to disabling the onboard sound

JonBoh

There does seem to be a conflict with a 'High Definition Audio Controller' and a 'USB Universal host controller'. 
How do you go about changing assignments in Windows 7? People seem to think you can't do it in Windows 7 because it is system managed by ACPI. I don't know if they are right or not...

Typically this isn't something you can sort out in Windows itself, as jrmunday mentioned, you'll likely need to access your motherboard's BIOS looking for its more advanced options. 

You can try simply disabling the On-Board Soundcard from within Windows (or shut it off more directly in the system BIOS) to see if that helps in some way, and it may but you'll also find that Windows will end up using the next device it finds for Windows Event sounds. 

This in itself, however, can sometimes cause a whole other set of issues with your Pro Audio Card's Clock or even recording frequencies to be suddenly changed if Windows throws up a system sound while you're recording.
   
As far as trying to go the BIOS route in attempting to move the Universal Serial Bus to another non-conflicting IRQ (which is sometimes impossible), you'll first need to find out if it'll even allow you to access and modify these settings... 

For instance many MB's are controlled by the popular Award BIOS and some iterations of this BIOS contain options such as what you see below. You'll need to find out if your BIOS allows for similar actions to be taken.






If you are able to change these parameters within your BIOS, then you can set, for instance, the Resources Controlled By to Manual; allowing you to tweak IRQ Assignments with greater scrutiny.

Luteman

Bristol_Jonesey


Chris, I think your irony sensors are in need of upgrading mate

Well they're quite old as well 

before you upgrade that 6600, you can get maybe a 20% boost by overclocking it, if you're into that kind of thing.  I have one, and run it at 3.0 Ghz with no trouble at all.  I'm pretty comfortable I could get 3.2 out of it - it never comes close to getting hot now. Mine might be a 2.6, though, I forget....