I was putting the info in my signature and it's raised a few questions. I have an Intel i5 and I see others that have an i7. I just ordered 8 gig that will give me a total of 16 compared to others having 32. As nothing more than a hobbiest and bedroom concerto, I feel like what I have will suffice. While I would like to build a better machine, I don't know I could justify it. Like my wife said, my hobby is getting expensive. I don't feel my material is good enough to sell so I'm getting a 0 ROI.
 
Are there any tweaks that can be done on this i5 machine? My VISIO is 32" TV used as a monitor. It is hooked up HDMI through and adapter that screws into RGB. Can this affect performance?
 
Thanks.
 
 

you could always spend loads on better gear (and it's hard to break the habit once you got into it) but gear by itself won't make the music any better ... unfortunately ...
 
so you might want to listen to your wife, or your whole life might just get more expensive ;-)
 
all that irony set aside I can asure you that you can to a lot with an i5 - if you know your tools and certain settings/procedures you can work with ... which would be e.g. ASIO settings, when to freeze synths or tracks, freeze w/ or w/out FX, bounce etc ...
 
I actually do a lot of recording using a standard WIN 8 tablet PC with only 4 GB and no tuning at all - did 20+ tracks live recordings on that thing or backing tracks for entire shows ...
 
for mixing I prefer my real DAW with 32 GB RAM, but rarely get close to fully utilizing that ...
 
well, maybe stick to 44.1 kHz, don't go higher as increased sample rate means more number crunching and needs more power ...
 
 
 

I use HDTV's for displays for Sonar too (I have a 40" and a 32"), and it all runs fine.
 
I happened to have had a giant pile of money when I got a lump sum disability check that went back for the 2 years I had to wait for the process to conclude, and THAT was how I got both an i7 CPU and 32 GB of memory, among other things, like my super nice recording mics and a good interface, etc.
 
8 GB of memory should be fine for most, if not all, of your projects.  I used to run with 4 GB just fine, back with XP Pro, then moved to 8 GB for a couple years, still fine, and am now at the 32 GB.
 
I have another desktop I use when I go to my son's place to record him playing guitar, and that desktop is running X3 and has 8 GB of memory and is fine for anything I have ever done there.  That PC has an AMD CPU of some sort - quad core but cannot recall which one.
 
I think you will be fine.  More is more, and many times better, but can just as easily not make much of a difference, once you DO get to where you have a decent processor and 8 GB or more of memory.  That seems to be a bit of a milestone amount of memory - enough to be comfortably running Sonar with a good number of tracks and plugins.
 
If you DO find some projects are straining things you can freeze things and such, and should still be OK.
 
Bob Bone
 

Thanks for your inputs. I'm still a little puzzled of why the freezing rate changed. Maybe it has something to do with having FX and not having them. I'm going do a screen cast I think and out that video in another thread. I wish I would have known then what I know now. I got my VA disability at the end of 2012 and that was after 3 years of waiting. (I've only been recording in DAW maybe a year and a half or a little longer.) I think I'll be ok. I'm just on guy who multitracks one track at a time except for the drums. Addictive drums adds up and those are the most common sounds I start losing first.
 

I have an i5 and my last project had a lot of tracks (90+) and FX on every track. The i5 is fine as long as your samples are on a different drive than your recording drive. You may have to consolidate busses on occasion when a bus gets a high CPU load due to a plugin(s), but I just bounce that bus to a track and archive whatever was feeding the bus.
 
Also, I would suggest that you do not start mixing (adding FX, EQ and so on) until after you are done recording all of your tracks.
 
Regards,
Dan
 

If all your hardware is going to be compatible, a good solution might be to save a little at a time and upgrade to an i7. Hopefully, then you won't need to jump through so many hoops.
 
Of note, I also had to convince my good lady that this is my passion (being only a hobbyist), and it's better to get the foundation (DAW) set properly so that it will last me well for the next (at least) 4 years. I saved a little every month for a about 18 months before I could afford to build my current machine. It has served me very well for the past 2 years and still going strong.
 
Good luck!!

On my laptop I got a Pentium t3200 with 3 gigs of RAM. I have trouble when there is more than 6 tracks or when there is a bit demanding vst. I might get a better laptop this year, a i3 model of some sort. Oh yes, it even has Vista so cannot upgrade to new Sonar yet. But then again gear problems are least of my problems when it comes to making music.

I see nothing wrong with what you have if your just a basic user and not doing crazy electronic stuff. 
If the video seems funky go pick up a video card. Basic passive cards are less that $50. 
 
I just built a new system and I went with the i5 because I'm mostly just audio with a few synths and drums. It take a heck of a lot more than I use to kill 16 gigs of RAM and a i5 quad core. I had no problems in the past with a Pentium D 3.2 duo core and 4 Gigs of RAM. But it was on the edge. I think 8 gigs is perfect and 16 is overkill but I did it just for the bragging rights. 
You sound like your the same as me so relax and spend your money on a nice new mike or pre amp   :)     
 
PS:  if you want improved performance slap a SSD drive in there for your OS. 

Just a thought, OP - have you dug into the power options on Windows to make sure that your CPU is running at full-speed when you are running Sonar?

You should be fine with an i5 & 16 Gb of RAM
 
My old DAW was based on a Q6700 chip, running Win XP32 and 4Gb of RAM. This machine could handle a 75 track project, complete with multiple live FX, loads of Midi & multiple unbounced V-Vocal clips.