Sonar Platinum and V Studio 700 on Macbook Pro

Hi everyone,
Pretty new to the forum, but I've dug out so much great info from all the posts that I'd thought I would share my recent experience getting my V Studio 700 running on my late-2011 Macbook Pro.
 
I was a Cakewalk/Sonar guy for years, back to the DOS days, but ending up going with a Macbook and Logic Pro for a few years.   Recently, I had an opportunity to pick up a very mint V Studio 700 system for a great price.   I've had my eye one one for years, but the price tag kind of held me back.   I sold off my Apogee and MOTU interfaces and made the plunge, always assuming I would have to buy a new PC to run the system.
 
At first, I installed the drivers and Sonar on an older Lenovo Laptop with 32 bit Windows 7.   It worked fine, but the machine was a little underpowered and the 4 GB RAM limitation was an issue.   I've had VMWare fusion installed on my Macbook for years, so I had the idea to see if I could run the system off of a virtual Windows machine.   I installed a Windows 8.1 VM and the install seemed to go great.  Sonar came up as expected and I was able to configure the V Studio as the control surface and interface.   In actual use, however, playback audio was just digital noise, and the console acted very strange with buttons not responding the way they should, random numbers cycling in the timecode display, etc.    Basically, a fail.   I worked on trying to get around this with config changes and upgrades to Fusion for a day or two, until I read the small print on the driver download page that "this driver cannot be used in a virtual Windows environment".   It also says "Macintosh computers running Microsoft Windows are not supported", but I can tell you that is not accurate (depending on the year/model, I suppose).
 
Before ordering a new PC for my recording setup, I decided to give the Macbook one more try.   Since the switch to Intel processors, Macs are basically just PC's with Apple OS running.   I figured I could just install a Windows partition on the MBP and run Windows natively rather than in a VM.   That should eliminate the driver issue, I assumed, and would also give me access to the full system resources while running Windows rather than sharing with OSX.   
 
Doing this is remarkably easy using the Bootcamp Assistant that comes with OSX.  You just tell Bootcamp how much of the available space you want to make available for a Windows partition, insert your Windows install disc, and away you go!   Just a normal old windows install.   As part of this process, Bootcamp creates a driver/software package that you run after install to make all the Apple hardware stuff work with Windows.   I've never used Bootcamp before, but I was shocked at how easy this was.   Windows 8.1 runs WAY faster and smoother on my Macbook than even my goosed-up work PC. 
 
Next, I installed Sonar, which went nice and fast, then downloaded the Ver. 2 Driver Set and other software from the Cakewalk site.   I bunged up the driver install the first time through by having the wrong USB cable plugged in for the VS-700r, but once I figured that out, it was smooth sailing.   Everything detected as it should, all the appropriate settings were made in Sonar, the console responded appropriately, so the moment of truth was upon me!
 
Long story, short, it works perfectly!   I am absolutely thrilled with this setup, and can't believe I have lived without the V Studio this long :)   The integration is so damn tight, and the performance has been rock solid - I haven't encounter one issue so far.   
 
Interestingly, I recently ordered a Caldigit Thunderbolt 2 dock for the Macbook.   It's a great little dock that adds 3 USB 3.0 ports, HDMI output, a couple of eSata ports, ethernet, external sound card, etc. for the Macbook (which only has 2 USB 2.0 ports) all through a super high speed single Thunderbolt cable.   I had no expectation that it would work in the Windows side, but I noticed Windows drivers on the Caldigit site for Ethernet, eSata and USB, so I gave it a shot, and damn, it works no problem with Windows 8.1!   I decided to push my luck and see if I could power an external VGA monitor via the HDMI out (using a HDMI to VGA adapter), and holy crap, it worked!   I also had a j5create USB to VGA adapter, so I plugged it into one of the USB 3.0 ports and into another VGA monitor, and great hibbly jibbly, it worked as well!   I was able to extend my Windows 8.1 desktop across the Macbook display to both external monitors allowing me to use one monitor for docking my console view, another for track view, and the third for whatever the hell floats my boat.  So, by plugging the 2 V Studio USB cables into the dock, I only have to deal with one cable going to my MacBook while have all my monitors, hard drives, interfaces and other peripherals hooked up and ready to go.   That was a good day.
 
Sorry for the long rambling post, I just wanted to share my excitement for getting this great setup up and running.   Thanks everyone for your great contributions, it makes a world of difference when troubleshooting.
 
Cheers,
 
Tom