Moving Sonar X3 to New PC

Hi;
 
I'm thinking about buying a new PC for my music production.  I currently run Sonar X3 on a Duo Core i3 and I'm thinking about buying either an i5 or i7 hoping this will lower latency and other speed and performance issues.  Would this do the trick, or would I just be wasting my money (and time, considering all of the time it would take to re configure everything)?  Also, if I'm going to do this how would I de authorize my current PC so I can re authorize Sonar on my new PC.  I know it is a rule that Sonar can run on only 1 PC per account and I want to minimize problems there.
 
Thanks
 
John B.

Thanks DA for your suggestions.
 
I only bought X3 a year ago and I'm not about to upgrade to whatever version of Sonar is new now.  That's the thing I really hate about making music with a PC.  You have to constantly pour money into it.  I know it makes for a better product ultimately, but I don't have an unlimited amount of money to spend on these things.  No, I'll buy whatever is left of the Windows 8 and hope the MOBO doesn't fry in less than a year.  But curious-How much would it cost me to upgrade from X3 to the new Sonar?
 
Thanks again
 
JB

Johnbee58
Thanks DA for your suggestions.
 
I only bought X3 a year ago and I'm not about to upgrade to whatever version of Sonar is new now.  That's the thing I really hate about making music with a PC.  You have to constantly pour money into it.  I know it makes for a better product ultimately, but I don't have an unlimited amount of money to spend on these things.  No, I'll buy whatever is left of the Windows 8 and hope the MOBO doesn't fry in less than a year.  But curious-How much would it cost me to upgrade from X3 to the new Sonar?
 
Thanks again
 
JB

Check the store (log in) and 3rd parties for price... Wait for offers as well (eg cyber Monday although I have no idea if if will be in sale). Platinum offers bug fixes, performance and stability fixes just what you are looking for in a new PC I believe.

I understand your reasoning maybe if you can hold out till the new year. New USB standard, Windows 10 will be more stable, and so will Platinum be.

Btw PC's offer a better ROI and value for money than Apple. In Apple world things go obsolete pretty quickly.

If you don't NEED to have the latest and greatest, X3 is still a very good product with lots to offer. It ran/runs very stable on my Windows 7 64-bit powered by an i7-3770.

If you plan to keep it as an isolated audio system for a few years there's nothing wrong with a setup like that. For speed recommendations I would suggest:

1. An SSD for the OS drive and main program. 120 GB should suffice if you keep it clean, but if you can spring for it and you have a lot of samples go for 500GB or something. Speeds up loading times incredibly. Samsung EVO840 got good reviews but I'm sure there's always another "latest and greatest" here too.
2. Get a large 7200RPM audio drive. I personally like the Western Digital caviar black Raid Edition 4.
3. Make sure you have true USB2 ports as well as the new USB3 ones. Not all audio interfaces like the USB3 ones. This is what Alex is referring to with the new standard coming.
4. Your interface determines minimum latency even more than your CPU speed, depending on what you're doing. I don't know what interface you have but it may be worth sinking some money into that. RME is often recommended on here and definitely has top notch performance.

Personally I only have 8GB of RAM and I've never run into its limits yet. Disk streaming in modern samplers (Kontakt etc.) makes sure RAM use remains under control. But I suppose with current prices and looking to the future, 16GB isn't all that outrageous.

I don't remember which audio interface your using but I seem to recall your having issues. A fast PC won't really be the answer, the fastest PC on earth is no substitute for good ASIO drivers.   
 
I run Sonar on an older Sony Laptop and adding more memory and a SSD drive has made it  a 100% stable DAW. I doubt if the processor is even as good as an i3. The processor while important, is the least of the problems that you'll have with a stable DAW. Fast hard drives, lots of Memory and good ASIO drivers come before CPU speed. 
And yes, nothing wrong with holding on to X3. 
As long as you have your registration numbers you can install X3 on as many computers as you like. As long as your the only user. X3 was the last of the old style registration. With the new system Cakewalk has a better handle on how many times your installing it. Which is fine by me. They needed to fix the easily pirated system of the past. 
 

Good ASIO drivers??
Is there any other available other than ASIO4ALL?  If so, where?
The only ASIO drivers I have access to are ASIO4ALL and my interface's ASIO driver, which is a Pod Studio UX2.
 
JB

And the UX2 isn't a "proper audio interface"?!  It also has ASIO drivers, BTW.
I never said it doesn't work with Sonar for me.  It does indeed, but I want to monitor through speakers, not headphones.  The damned ASIO4ALL are the drivers that keep failing.

I agree with above advice. Remove asio4all, reboot, and get the latest ASIO drivers for your ux2. You will probably notice a difference in stability.
Best of luck.

As someone who fought the "proper audio interface" setup for too long, there is much wisdom in the above advice to focus there first.

No.  The problem is not really the interface.  It was a controller error.  I've since replaced the controller, but I still get the error messages that I asked about in this post:
 
http://forum.cakewalk.com/Input-Error-Lost-Controller-m3242225.aspx
 
As I said, I've since replaced the controller but have the same issue.  In fact, the only way I can use the controller is through the ASIO driver in the UX2 interface.  Perhaps you could offer a suggestion to my problem in the link I posted.  I'd appreciate any help.  My plan right now is to get new monitor speakers and run them off of the UX2 outputs and not use ASIO4all at all anymore.  Does that sound like a good plan?
 
Thanks
 
JB

I think is John is having issues that have nothing to do with his marginally OK PC. 
His thread title is asking if he should spend on a new build and if it's easy to transfer X3 to a new machine. That was answered, but I was questioning if this is the next best step to solve his re occurring issues. ( read his other threads) 
Myself I say get things working on what you have first. 
I'm running Sonar X3 on a similar duo core laptop that only has 3 Gigs of RAM. I'm not asking much of it but the main point is it's rock solid stable and even using my Tascam us1641. 
The reason is it's optimized and Sonar and the ASIO drivers are all running 100%. 
 
I agree that faster is always going to be better but one needs to decide where to spend their hard earned cash and at this point I say John's is now on the right path. 
 
It might be possible to upgrade the processor and add more RAM but my guess is the MoBo is to old to bother with. So a whole new computer will be required, that going to be easily $800 and up. 
 
John your other thread was answered in the same way where you where told to ditch asio4all and use your proper ASIO drivers. You even say everything works great when you do. So I'm not sure what else to add to that thread. I think purchasing real studio monitors is an excellent move. Happy shopping. 
There are 100's of threads in the Hardware forum on the topic of monitors. 
I'm a die hard Yamaha fan so no point asking me as I only have one answer..
 http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/HS8
 

OK.  All is well.  I installed Reason 7.  The only problem I had with that was deauthorizing my old PC and authorizing the new one.  This was because Propellerhead redid it's website since I last used it and I had to figure out how to navigate my account.  But it's all there now.  All my software and plugins and I tested them and they all work.  I still can't believe how relatively effortless it was.  It's a Lenovo.  The processor is a Duo Core I5 with 8 gigs of RAM.  I think the processor is something like a 4770.  I have the UX2 set up to handle ALL the audio on the computer and I disabled the onboard soundcard, so everything comes through the UX2, whether it's a DAW or the internet or MP3s or whatever.  I packed it up again and set it aside for my new studio, which will be part of a new addition to my house, which also includes a new and bigger Living Room and more basement space.  Also, I'm retiring next week so I'll have plenty of time to create music.  Life is (finally) good.  I dreamed about this for years.  I gave my son my old PC.
 
 
Again, I thank all who gave me some guidance in this.  My apologies to Cactus Music for my misunderstanding of him a few days ago.  It's like someone else pointed out, it's too easy to misunderstand meaning on the internet because you can't hear tone of voice or body language of the other people you're communicating with.  I'm sure Cactus is a great guy and a huge asset to this forum.
 
Peace!
JB

Glad you got it figured out. Now, go make music

I believe you will be happy with your choice. Lots of great reviews on those And now... Make music

It is always nice to be able to help someone else