If you want to save money then go with Windows 8 and skip Windows 7.
On Oct 23 when it is officially released you will be able to purchase a download upgrade from XP to win8 for $39.99 US Dollars. Note: it will completely overwrite your hard drive so best to install on new drive.
I went from XP 32 to Win 8 64 (Release Preview) and it is all working fine with Sonar X2 (so far).
To be safe, a bought a second hard drive and installed everything on it. I still have the XP32 hard drive to fall back on or copy files from if necessary.