Hi,
 
I've been using sonar for a while now and love it. So much I want to take it on the road, but I have little money and many other whishes. The thing is, I'm looking for a decent but cheap notebook to be able to record and perform outside my br studio.
I want to keep the costs down amap and am trying to decide what to go for.
I have two elitebooks available to me, one at 200 euro with a c2d t9600 and one at 375 eurio with an i5 560m . HDD and ram are the same and both have dedicated vga (resp. quadro FX770M 512mb and FirePro M5800 1GB). Screen resolutions are resp. 1600x1050 and 1600x900.
Now I know which one is the best, but the price difference is quite steep. So what I am wondering is if anyone of you have real life experience running Sonar X3 on a core2duo t9600 system . I see it meets the minimum requirements, but doesn't surpass them much. On the other hand I'm not a big user. Runing about 3-4 vi's, and tracking/monitoring 2 stereo and 5 mono tracks with maybe some breverb on some or comp/lim via prochannel, will need to be possible though. Would this be possible on the cheaper t9600 processor ? For me it's hard to decide because I can't see it hands on. I don't need it as my main studio gear, but I want to be able to record my band while running some vi's used by the band. If the cheaper t9600 based book will do that trick just fine I'll save me the money, on the other hand I don't want to spend 200 euro and then constantly be bummed out because it's not pulling sonar's weight . I don't know what meeting the minimum specs. processor'wise  will 'guarantee' in real life use  (the t9600 performs about 5% over). Seeing how minimum specs on Windows basically only guaranteed booting, but little else would be possible let alone smooth, I'm skiddish about just meeting the specs. On the other hand saving cash is also important and it would be a waste if I could do with the cheaper one but bought the more expensive one.
So does anyone have any ideas or better even, experience on the matter ? Will sonar x3 be usable on a core2duo t9600 based notebook ? Who can release me from the next to imbearable mental pressure of this technical and ethical dilemma... Please!! before I die of indicisiveness...:S
Thanks in advance for thinking along :)

My former laptop was P9500 based, I think they're fairly close together. It had 4GB RAM and a 7200RPM HDD. I used it mainly to run Ableton with audio loops, fx and some virtual instruments. It did that well. I never had X3 on it and it certainly wasn't a speed monster, but I think it would do decently with modest requirements. I used mine with a Fast Track Pro, usually keeping the buffer size at 256 or 512 samples. It was still playable at those settings for keyboard based VSTis.

On the other hand, if you could wait a little while and save some more, you could get an incredible performance improvement by going up to, say, 500/600 bucks and finding a nice sale. In the long run, you may be happier with that. My old laptop is now relegated to (vacation) photo processing and archiving.

Tnx for your efforts Sander. Unfortunately I'm not alot wiser. I really want to know for X3 as it's newer and possible/probably heavier then earlier versions. It runs fine on my studio desktop with i5. However the laptop will only be for creative purposes on the road, or recording the band while running some VI's. I will be doing this with my motu 828MK3. For editing and elaborate producing and mixing I will turn back to my bedroom studio. If a t9600 based or equivalent system would do for that, I'll go for the budget save. So hopefully someone else maybe knows if X3 will run well enough on such  system. ram withboth would be 4gb.

To be honest it's really hard to get better info without even telling us exactly how many tracks you'll be running, which softsynths they will be playing, how many notes each will be handling, and the amount of latency you're expecting.
 
So again, in a very general sense, I believe it would work. Other than that, we'll need more info, and I believe everyone would agree that, in the long run, you'll be happier with a more capable system.

To clarify, "X3" really won't be that much heavier just for playing back an audio track. It's all about what you do with it. Obviously, there are some heavy plugins available like Addictive Drums. But yes, you will be able to run 3/4 VST instruments and track/process a couple of audio tracks.

Hi and again tnx.
I admit the info is vague, but what I meant was general use. This in the sense that it'll be typicaly a dimpro, sampletank ,zta+ or rapture. Maybe AD, but if too heavy SD3 will also do as well as kits in the romplers mentioned above. Generally no more than two Vi's will be loaded, but 1 or 2 more could be desired. Again preferebally the bechangeVI but the bread and butter work will do. On maximum I'll be recording 3 midi tracks, 2 stereo and 5 mono, though tthat probably won't quickly be necessary. Both notebooks are sturdy business performance oriented models (just old), so reliability will be ok, but processing power is one of the two mentioned. If they both could be expected to handle it, cheaper is better. If none of them could, worse but still good to know.
I understand however it's very hard to estimate without all the variables filled and I've tried the people that should know more and provide a better idea of what to expect, Cakewalk, but after 5 mins on hold I got through only to hear it ring five times and then an answering machine. Haven't been called back yet and my mail also hasn't been answered yet. Time on the deals however is running out.
Right now I'm leaning the most to 'better safe than sorry' however I don't even know know if the i5 would even do the trick. On the other hand I do suspect both will suffice and the i5 just has some more headroom and being stressed for budget as it is, I'd rather spend cash on something else then headroom (which is nice but non functional unless my desires cha)

I just checked and I actually have a T9500 which is very slightly slower. I routinely ran it with Ableton 7 and 8, with sample based VSTi Trillian and some Ableton kits or 3rd party synths. I really think, since you're bent on being "budget friendly", as long as you have modest requirements you will be fine. Make a clean install and keep it for music.

You will realize within a week if it turns out to be too limiting for you after all and you can sell it on with minimal loss.

Hi there Sander and thanks once more. Giving what you said I might have gone for the other one, however here the window of oppurtunity was closing yesterday and (even up til now) I never heard back from CW support (call or email) so had to make a decision. And even though I really stand by the philosophy 'don't pay for what you don't need/use', I felt I had to go by the 'better safe than sorry' philosophy considering I had no real other info to go on than the minimum system requirements Cakewalk advertises.
So I decided to go as far above them as possible within my budget. I'll have to put back some other wishes, but all things considered I'm very happy with my decision. The cheaper one would have needed a new 40 euro battery and this one came with a bag, extra battery and docking station as well. Maybe if I had seen your post a bit earlier I would have felt assured enough to go for the cheaper option, however now I'm very happy knowing I'll probably have enough headroom to work smoothly and am all set on accessories. 
Anyways before I go on and on about my new precious :P I want to thank you once more for your time and effort. It's really nice to find someone is doing there best to think along with a problem your having and I appreciate it very much. All the best to you and 'til next thread,grtz...
 
Paul

I think especially with a DAW, any extra horsepower is welcome. At some point you will want that extra track or effect, or that heavier VSTi. I don't think I'll run into crippling limits with my desktop i7 soon, but when dealing with these older processors every little bit is gain. So don't feel bad. Keep working, money can be made again, and I bet before long you'll be happy you spent that little bit extra!