Good article by zapotec indeed.
 
#5 in that list (Deactivate Devices in the Windows Device Manager) is what I was harping on, and as riojazz says, is more tweaking than genuine "optimizing".
 
I turn off a lot of stuff - my touchpad (I have a mouse plugged-in), iTunes, onboard soundcard, WiFi, Bluetooth, anything Adobe, it's a pretty big list. My Win install has 100+ processes shown at startup and I am well below 100 by the time I am ready to start SONAR. And I do have my comp set to basically run at full power all the time - power management "features" can be a PITA if they start powering stuff down when you least expect it.
 
Does this all help? I don't know, I certainly haven't benchmarked it at all, but my copy of SONAR runs good on my system with very few pops here and there when live playing/recording (that never translate to a mix-down anyway) by doing this. It may be as smooth without doing all of that - but I am old school and tend to turn off everything I can when I need to make sure that the computer needs to run as smooth as possible. But with 4 cores @ 2.7+ Ghz, with 8GB of RAM and almost 400GB of free on a  500GB drive (SONAR and Windows are only 2 major installs on my laptop) - X3d runs pretty good anyway. I do get some hesitations in screen redraws and the start of playback in larger projects, sometimes, if I forget to kill all those background apps and TSRs first, but it would still be usable honestly.

SUBSONIC:  What method do you use for turning off services?  Do you manually go into msconfig each time you run Sonar?  I'm hoping there's an automated process that can be set up once, then run easily before a Sonar sessino.

http://www.sweetwater.com/sweetcare/articles/pc-optimization-guide-for-windows-7/

James: tell me the make and model of your motherboard ... same for the video and what memory are you running .

James, please don't do any of the tweaks that people throw at you, particularly if they involve which "Mobo" you have, or if they refer to "Bios"  etc.
 
Run LatencyMon and report back.
 
No need to fix if it ain't broke.
 
This will only cause you more problems.

jb101 : that's a total joke !

StarTekh
jb101 : that's a total joke !

Projection, I feel.  Nice to see you back, Startech.  Still asking the same question in every thread.
 
@james - look for posts from people on this forum that use Sonar for a living - use it in studios every day, and see which tweaks they use, other than the basic ones.

Experiment, it's what got us out of caves and into warm houses. As far as I know and contrary to belief, there is no PC tweak that will leave you as just a pair of smoking boots!.... Can the same be said for your PC? ;-) .... Also it really depends on your definition of 'tweak'.

jb101 : ground up builds:   you might wana read this ...   http://forum.cakewalk.com/SOLVED-Saffire-Pro-40-and-ASUS-Z87-Pro-m2967913.aspx
 
my responce:  MoJo: see this driver is installd !   http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Z87PRO/#support
 
Version 9.4.0.1026 .....Intel(R) Chipset Software Installation Utility V9.4.0.1026 for Windows 7/8/8.1 32bit & 64bit.
Version 9.4.0.1017......Intel Chipset Driver V9.4.0.1017 for Windows 7 32/64bit & Windows 8 32/64bit.(WHQL)
 
the boards latest bios is : Z87-PRO BIOS 1707
 
Users responce:I just finished downloading and installing all of the updated drivers and I'M IN BUSINESS!!!! Everything is working and behaving as it should. I just want to give a shout out to my fellow "Sonarians" and say THANK YOU for your time, help and insight. I knew I was coming to the right place even though it truly wasn't a Sonar issue.
 
Want me to keep going ?

Yes, I'm sorry for my outburst.
 
I just think that you should try running your system as it is, and, if it works well, then don't bother with all the "tweaks" or "optimisations" that people suggest.
 
Power management, disable wireless card, etc. may be enough.
 
If not, then look at the alternatives.