Symphonic strings for rock/pop songs

Hi All,
 
Can anyone recommend a good set of orchestral / symphonic strings to give my music (largely guitar/bass/drums/piano and some synths) a bit of classical whoomph?
 
I'm particularly impressed with the sounds and tones that Sparks have been using for a few albums now (and, by the way, hats off to them for their mighty Hippopotamus album) on songs such as these:
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgakpSoHEiE
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOmdBOmXOvU
 
I realise that my normal style of acquiring instruments (Free VSTi) is a little out of the league I'm looking for so I have a budget of a couple of hundred pounds to play with.
 
Does anyone have any experience with stuff like these:
 
https://www.uvi.net/orchestral-suite.html
 
Or any of these:
http://www.learnproducing.com/the-best-orchestra-vst-plugins-for-2017/
 
I'm probably not going to utilise a full orchestra but if there's something that comes recommended from you Sonar ladies and chaps then I might go for it...
 
Thanks in advance for your advice...
 
Frink.

The Cakewalk Studio Instruments - String Section is something you already have.  Have you tried that yet?  If that doesn't cut it for you, read on...
 
From that list you provided, I do have all 3 of the Sonivox Orchestral Companions.  They sound good, but I think that the freebie Virtual Playing Orchestra below can sound as good, and has more solo instrument options, along with sections.  Some brass patches offer velocity layers and dynamic cross fades.  All instruments include a general purpose articulation called “Normal-mod-wheel”. This is effectively a sustain patch with a fast attack, but the mod wheel reduces the rate of the attack.
 
If I was going to spend money again, I would probably have opted for Garritan Personal Orchestra, because it uses the multi-timbral Aria player.  So it can have up to 16 parts in one plugin instance.  Or maybe Miroslav Philharmonik CE from IK Multimedia.  Those are probably good entry level orchestral libraries, with multi-timbral setups, for a reasonable price.
 
But before spending any money, be sure to check out the free orchestral library for the sforzando player, Virtual Playing Orchestra.  It has been curated from the best free orchestral samples available.  The sforzando player is a single timbral player based on the same Aria engine used by Garritan.
 
Virtual Playing Orchestra is a free, sfz format, sample library that attempts to emulate multiple articulations of the solo and section instruments from a full orchestra using the best samples from Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra, No Budget Orchestra, VSCO2 Community Edition, University of Iowa, Philharmonia Orchestra and extra samples from Mattias Westlund, author of Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra.
 
>> http://virtualplaying.com..tual-playing-orchestra/
 
sforzando :: Free SFZ Player - get this to play the free orchestra!
 
>> http://www.plogue.com/products/sforzando/

Mesh
First thing that came to mind was POP_Rock_Strings from Kirk Hunter. If you're not in a hurry, he usually has a very good sale once a year.

Good to see that also works in the free "Player" version of Kontakt!  Looks cool, with the arranger built in.

Aye - 'tis good stuff. Been following Sparks since '74. The newer albums Hello Young Lovers, Lil' Beethoven and Hippopotamus are just as exciting to me now as Indiscreet and Propaganda were to me back in the day...

I read an interview with Ron Mael a few weeks ago. He says everyday he goes for a walk in his local park in LA. The only other person he's ever seen in there is Brian Wilson. Can you imagine that scene .. Ron Mael and Brian Wilson casually walking around the same park every day! Apparently they've never acknowledged each other.

abacab
The Cakewalk Studio Instruments - String Section is something you already have.

 I messed with those and I was surprised how decent they sound in a mix.  I'm one who doesn't really care for authentic string sounds unless I'm doing orchestra.
 
 GPO is also a good alternative. Easy to set up and use. I used them in a disco project and they seemed the best over more authentic huge strings like EW and VSL.
 

They are all available as 64-bit VST, so should run just fine in Sonar 64-bit, or any DAW that supports the VST standard.  Any version of Sonar from the X-series to Platinum should be on the same playing field with plugins.
 
Some plugin developers have started to support 64-bit exclusively, and dropped support for 32-bit plugins.  That is a good reason to be running a 64-bit DAW today.  Sonar x64 can bridge 32-bit plugins, but I always try to use 64-bit if available.
 
Edit: There is also the matter of VST2 or VST3, which I didn't mention.  But since you are on X3, that shouldn't be an issue.  Sometimes you'll have a choice of which to install and use. Occasionally one works better in a particular host DAW or system than the other version, so you'll just have to try them out.