''Couldn't make this out in your footer, how much RAM do you actually have? Thanks...''
 
6.00 Go CakeAlexS
 
 

Do you have evidence to show your hard drive is too slow? There could be other bottlenecks.
 
Over the time by reading all the post about latency and all the problems we could have making music with a pc (or laptop) i've finally (i think) found the right set-up. So while i was trying to find the sweet spot i noticed with the Sonar monitoring performance that my laptop hard disk seems to spin quit a bit (50%). I did a test using an external hard drive and saw that the performance dropped down to 10% (i'm still using that external drive and just don't have any problems) . I don't think that THIS is what made the difference but it might have helped...??? So anyway we always try to improve our system so i saw those external hard drive that says 7200 rpm...that's why i asked if that would that be a good move to buy that thing?

Hellya could you right click My Computer (or "Computer"), left click properties, it should then tell you the installed memory (RAM) in Gb. Cheers.

6.00 GB
 

I suggest updating "GB" in your footer, also we also need to know if you are running 32 bit windows or 64 bit windows, and indeed what version of windows. Also Sonar 64 bit or 32 bit?
 
32 bit only has 4Gb of addressable memory.
 
Also please check:
Scroll down to "Do You Have Enough Memory?"
http://blogs.technet.com/b/markrussinovich/archive/2008/07/21/3092070.aspx
 
Sonar should be giving you some idea of how much memory you are using too.
With a lack of memory you could be swapping out too much to hard drive, something to check anyway.
Probably barking up the wrong tree here but worth a check.
Oh and please defrag your hard drive.
 
Cheers..

Windows 64 bit all Sonar X1 to X3 64 bit....yeah my laptop may need a defrag

I thought defraging was no longer necessary with W7? 
Every time I check, there are no fragmented files. 

> I thought defraging was no longer necessary with W7? 

Oh Microsoft said that when NT first came out, and then the next release came with an in built defragger.
 
Nope defragging is necessary it's just totally unnecessary to run it all the time, some people run it every day/week and wear out their hard drives. I generally run it after I install new software or every couple of months, whatever is soonest.
 
You may have your defragger scheduled every month or week or so, which is not a good idea when using Sonar (turn off scheduling and run it when you want to run it). Cheers...

I have found that an external 7200 drive dedicated to audio certainly did improve performance. eSata is far better than usb2. This also takes the load off your system drive so you may well find that it doesn't need upgrading. 

CakeAlexS
> I thought defraging was no longer necessary with W7? 

Oh Microsoft said that when NT first came out, and then the next release came with an in built defragger.
 
Nope defragging is necessary it's just totally unnecessary to run it all the time, some people run it every day/week and wear out their hard drives. I generally run it after I install new software or every couple of months, whatever is soonest.
 
You may have your defragger scheduled every month or week or so, which is not a good idea when using Sonar (turn off scheduling and run it when you want to run it). Cheers...

Actually, MS does not say defragmenting is unnecessary in Win 7, it is just that it is scheduled to run on a schedule by default. If your computer is turned off when not in use, the time scheduled for defragmentation may not be available. Check when it is actually scheduled to run, and leave your computer on over night to let it, or run it manually when it is convenient.
 
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/improve-performance-defragmenting-hard-disk#1TC=windows-7