I want to say THANK YOU to everyone who responded to my original post. As you can see it has been some time since I initially posted my question and the reason for the delay in this response is that the answers you provided struck a nerve and caused me to do several weeks of soul-searching. I have been studying or performing or just playing music since I was eight years old. I’ve always enjoyed playing and learning but in hindsight, I never had any long-term goal of what to shoot for with my musical interests (maybe that is why I ended up with an Accounting career). When I asked the question about the capabilities of my computer as it related to orchestral music, your answers hit me in a way that was beyond the purely technical answer I was looking for. Simply put, your answers finally forced me to ask myself, “why am I doing this and what do I hope to do with this”. Seems simple enough but I’ve never really been honest about answering that question. So….since I just turned 50 years old and I don’t want to live in LA, I suppose composing film scores is out of the question. As I’m only now starting to dig deep into composing and into the DAW world with Sonar X1, I still have a steep learning curve transitioning from someone who plays to someone who composes and records. Your answers and my subsequent pondering are finally leading me to set my sights on achievable goals and dreams. Yes, I do need to upgrade my computer but I need to do it in a way consistent with my expected outcomes. And bottom line for today is, I have so much to learn with the tools I already have, I just need to get busy taking advantage of what I have and worry about what I don’t have later. My apologies for the mid-life philosophy, but I just wanted to close out this post with a follow up to let you guys know you really helped me out. I’ve read and studied this forum a ton over the past few years, I just haven’t had anything to post that would interest others. So thank you!!! Roger