Hello,
  I am building a computer for Sonar X1 producer and need some advice on hardware.  The CPU I'm getting (unless people have a better idea) is the I7-3960x.  I looking at the Asus p9x79 family of motherboards, but am not sure which one to get.  Should I get the "pro" or the "Deluxe" or the "workstation"?  I'm getting a bunch of Ram just not sure how much is really needed.  This machine will ONLY be running X1 on Windows 7.  For hard drive's, was planning 1 or 2 TB's or should I go to a SSD drive?  Also, since this is the first dedicated machine, I'm assuming I will need some type of soundboard or use the onboard controllers?  Here is a link to the motherboards  http://usa.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_2011/Intel_X79 .
 
Any direction would be greatly appreciated.  As an aside, this is not my first computer I've built (been building them since the 80's), this just happens to be the first dedicated to one piece of software.  Thanks in advance.
 
 
August

A few thoughts:

• Invest in a decent Soundcard/Interface - DON'T rely on an onboard chip for this
• SSD drives are fine for your Operating System & Progs
• You might need at least 2 additional, traditional HDD's - 1 for your Audio projects and 1 for Samples, depending on your needs
• DON'T go for any variety of "green" hard drive
• Don't forget backups! get a BIG external hard drive for this
• The amount of RAM you'll need again depends on what you want from your system, what sort of projects will you be doing?

Do you have any recommendations for the sound card?
I will be using 2 TB drive (1tb each) and will configure 1 for system the other for Audio projects.
I will have a large external drive for B/U
the current projects are as follows
1) recording my sons band. It's a three piece currently.  I got tired of paying someone to record and master songs for them, so I built the a 600sq. ft. recording studio, this is what the software is mainly for. 
2) record various artists
3) record various bands. This will be mainly for "disadvantaged bands" i.e. young bands that more than likely will never be able to afford "real" studios, this way they can get a CD for next to nothing and get to go thru the "whole experience". 

Dude... why are you buying that CPU? It's unnecessary to run X1 and the cost to performance increase ratio versus an i7 2600k is not worth the money. I'm sure you have your reasons but even if I was filthy rich I wouldn't buy that thing unless it was absolutely necessary.

Also if you want to throw money around to get extra performance out of your system buy an SSD for your C drive instead of a big clunky mechanical one. You don't need insane amounts of space to run X1.

As far as RAM 16GB will cover pretty much anything you can throw at it. I bought the Corsair Vengeance 16GB DDR3 pack and it was only a little over $100.

I look at this way, it's better to have it and not need it than it's better to not have it and need it.  The cost is only about 1400.00 for mobo and cpu, so that's not to bad.  I was also thinking about an SSD for the "C" drive and a mechanical for the audio files.  In my experience (for what that's worth) to have the head room on the CPU just makes everything work better and it will go through multiple upgrades before I need to replace it, spend a bit more now to save in the long run.  I was planning on running a minimum of 16GB maybe more like 32GB, it a microsoft product, it ALWAYS needs more ram ;)
 

I hear you man but look at the specs on that $1000 CPU versus the $300 one. You are not getting that much more power and the i7 2600k is WAY more than future ready. The one you are looking at is for extreme enthusiasts just trying to squeeze a tiny little bit extra out of their systems (usually gamers or people building servers). That is money far better spent on a wicked audio interface. It just isn't worth the money and you don't need it. If you take a look at ADK or the other audio system builders products you will realize that they don't even bother with those processors except for the extremely high powered rigs that a major studio would buy. Also by the time the i7 2600 stuff is out of date the one you are looking at will be SMOKED by the next generation CPUs anyway. I'm telling you, bro... it is a waste of money for what you said you want to do. Not trying to be harsh, just trying to let you know that money is better spent elsewhere. Cheers!

Not being harsh at all.  In fact I appreciate the useful information.  You mentioned an Audio interface, would this be an external unit or internal unit?  What would you recommend?

You definitely want an external. For that $700 you save you can get something super nice. I can recommend a few but this is where you'd want advice from the real pros around here. I will toss some general suggestions at you though in a bit. I'm currently in the middle of doing something and am not set up for proper typing/internet scouring. Cheers.