What to use on the road?

I would post this in the X-Series forum. There are typically more eyes in there, and some of those folks are running laptops with X3c.

Ori - I may not be the most supported person when I say this, but I ditched using a desktop altogether.

It has been great for me. As long as you have enough memory in your laptop and it's relatively up to date as a machine I think it can be extremely liberating - as it has been for me.

I can attach to my full studio and I have everything just like I had with a desktop. This is especially great when I'm mixing with monitors and want the whole studio set up available.

When I detach from my studio area and take my laptop elsewhere I can still do 80 percent of the work just with Sonar X3 on the laptop and a few extra pieces I take with me.

One is my audio interface. I use a Focusrite Scarlett 18i6. I have one of these tethered in my studio area to 18 inputs from all kinds of studio gear. I have a second Scarlett unit I bring around with my laptop so that all the audio settings are the same and I'm good to fire up Sonar anywhere.

I also usually have my Line 6 KB-37 keyboard with me as well. This is great for inputting keyboard tracks and allows me to use PodFarm for electric guitar inputs. (I input guitar through the Scarlett, but the KB-37 enables PodFarm to work). The KB-37 is a really handy portable keyboard and looks cool to boot. Mics and headphones would be as much as needed to record / mix by yourself. Add guitars etc.

If you need to record a small combo of folks live, just add more mics and an ADAT connection to the back of the Scarlett for plenty of live, manageable and clear sounding inputs.

Final note, I have a Focusrite VRM box which is another plus for mixing and is very portable.

We do a lot of motorhome trips and I have a small setup for remote recording. See here:
http://www.motorhomefacts.com/ftopic-121292.html

I use an Octa-Capture interface to record two vocals and a bass guitar. At the same time I use two inputs for a stereo track via an Ensonique keyboard. I also run a midi output from the Ensonique into the midi input of the Octa-Capture, that feeds a simple instrument track of True Pianos. This gives me a lot of scope to mix a good keyboard sound. A total of 6 tracks at once on a Compaq 15", Core i5 with 4GB RAM and 32bit Windows install. I have used this setup now for over 4 years and it has never let me down. The recorded midi track is a real bonus as it allows me to add other instruments at a later date, that are tied to the original performance.