Apologies in advance for this question that must have been asked before.  I searched the forum several times but was surprised to get no results.
 
I'm on Vista Business SP2 and SONAR X1 Producer.  I'm thinking of upgrading to X3 Producer and wonder what is the most stable, reliable OS for it.  In my book those words generally don't describe any version of Windows, so I stress the word "most" above. :-)
 
If it matters, my CPU is i7 920 2.67 GHz, with 6 GB RAM.  
 
Thanks!
Larry

Win 8, hands down.

Any supported 64 bit Windows OS will do (that is Windows 7 and above), although it makes sense to run it on the latest.

CakeAlexS
Any supported 64 bit Windows OS will do (that is Windows 7 and above), although it makes sense to run it on the latest.

I would think it might make more sense to run on the latest OS the hardware supports. Make sure your hardware (including audio interface) support the target OS or you might have to upgrade hardware too.

scook
I would think it might make more sense to run on the latest OS the hardware supports. Make sure your hardware (including audio interface) support the target OS or you might have to upgrade hardware too.

That's a valid but separate point. Advice equally applies to Windows 7 as well as Windows 8 or 8.1. The best OS for X3D has to be at least one of these if not all of them or some of them. Hardware compatibility yup that is important.

Stay away from Win 7....theres many more issues with it and more than Win 8 (such as the dreaded Black Screen of Death)

Win 8 has been the most stable MS OS yet.....Its a bit of a pain at first with Metro etc but 8.1 addresses that (ish).. Just the golden rule applies, CHECK YOUR HARDWARE HAS DRIVERS TO WORK WITH WIN 8!!!!
 
There are workarounds (I got PT 10 to work with Win 8 despite the Avid forum screaming at me that it couldnt be done)... But, you'll find alot of help and support on the forum here with Win 8.

btw, If your Motherboard supports (which I am sure it does, up your RAM to at least 16gb of DDR3)...also SSD for the main HD is very efficient.

Working well on 12Gb here, to be honest 8Gb might have been fine as well. I would have had 16Gb but the 4Gb sticks that were supplied were not from the same manufacturer (therefore didn't work together correctly) and my suppliers refused to refund me (a**holes). I should have sued...

CakeAlexS
Working well on 12Gb here, to be honest 8Gb might have been fine as well. I would have had 16Gb but the 4Gb sticks that were supplied were not from the same manufacturer (therefore didn't work together correctly) and my suppliers refused to refund me (a**holes). I should have sued...

*facepalm* 

The whole memory debate tho....depends on how you set your system up but 8-16gb of DDR3 in matched pairs of the same make should be ample.

I am one of those users that has the Net, VMWARE and god knows what muck running while I am using Sonar at the same time but 16gb for now serves me well.

markyzno
Stay away from Win 7....theres many more issues with it and more than Win 8 (such as the dreaded Black Screen of Death)

Your problems are not the norm.  I've been on Win7/64 for years and it has been rock solid.  My laptop is on Win8 and it runs my music app no different than Win7.  Everyone I know that uses Win7 for music has a very solid system.