Does the USB 3 thing make sense?

Unless you're using a motherboard with an Intel Z series chipset motherboard, the USB3 ports are provided by a 3rd-party controller.
Many USB2 audio interfaces have issues with 3rd-party USB3 ports (don't work at all... or performance is degraded).
General rule of thumb, if you've got a USB2 audio interface, connect it to a USB2 port.
Even if the USB3 port works perfectly fine, there's no advantage do using it.

Bob - thanks for all the great assistance. I made all the changes you documented - as well as updating to X2a. Everything appears to be working great. I did change everything over to 24 bit under preferences>file>audio data. I think that included both record bit-depth and render bit-depth. Also switched all the 1818 inputs under the control panel to the settings under Sonar.  I think I'm ready to rock....and, hmmm, no disco here haha