Hi There
 
I want a laptop to run X3 [please I have my reasons and it WILL be a laptop and not Mac) and have found one that I can afford...it has an i7 4500U dual core, 8 gig ram
 
I am familiar with all of the issues with laptops and audio, etc. I actually built my last desktop but that was
a core2duo 2.13 Ghz OC'D to 3gHz.
 
I used to run Sonar 7 in XP with the core2duo with 20 audio tracks and Reason 5 rewired with maybe 16 Reason tracks (Largest Project)
 
Can I acheive the same or close with the i7 dual core assuming I do my tweaks, RAM, SSD etc? 
 
Thanks for any help
 
peace

Hi hadje22,
Welcome to the forums.
 
When I saw your post, I immediately thought of one of our regulars here (Bapu) who happened to have a laptop DAW for sale. He's an upstanding guy and the laptop was built by one of Sonar's Pro DAW builders (Scott from ADK).
 
I don't if it's still available, but here's the info: http://forum.cakewalk.com/Scaling-back-FYI-laptop-DAW-on-KVR-m3131731.aspx#3131731
 
Hopefully, someone else might chime in on you OP.
 
Good luck!!

Hey thanks for the quick reply!
 
Yeah the one I am looking at is more in the $575-$600 range which is my max, otherwise I would be in i7 quad core territory...

Thanks anyway I will wait to see if anyone can help me out with the cpu in question
 
just to add; the i7 4500U is 1.8 Ghz at stock but turbos to 3Ghz
 
peace

When you say "turbos' to 3GHz, do you mean over clocked?
 
Anyway, I did find some minimum requirements to run the new Sonar (which should be fine with X3 as well):
 

SONAR Platinum/Professional/Artist System Requirements

The information in this article applies to:

• SONAR Platinum
• SONAR Professional
• SONAR Artist

 
Minimum System Requirements:
OS: Windows 7 or 8 (32- or 64-bit)
Processor: 2.6GHz Intel or AMD multi-core processor
Memory: 4GB
Hard Drive: 5GB for minimal install, 20GB recommended
Monitor Resolution: 1280x800 (1920 x 1080 recommended)
Audio Interface: ASIO compatible hardware is recommended
Internet: Connection required for downloads, activation, and publishing features.
Addictive Drums 2 is available with an Internet connection only.
 
 
If you're not going to use a lot of soft synths & Fx's, that laptop should be more than sufficient. Of course, it's good to have more "power" under the hood when you need it, but I totally understand you're on a budget.   

re "turbo"... from my current understanding these i series cpus run at a stock speed that is lower than max to minimize power consumption,etc, but when needed it speeds up; in this case to3Ghz on both cores and all four "threads".
 
as far as Vst and effects, on my old system w/sonar7 i could usually have things like delay,comp,etc on each track with Reason also running in rewire and even say an instance of amplitube on a guitar track, and a reverb bus and drum parallel compression bus...as stated my projects were never larger than around 12-18 audio tracks and Reason running in Rewire.  I also did some "sound design" stuff with fairly beefy sample libraries and had no problems.

Turbo boost isn't overclocking.  Overclocking is operating the chip outside it's design parameters.  Turbo boost is a technology that Intel developed that if a process isn't fully taking advantage of the workload capacity on each of the  cores, it will increase the clockspeed on each of the cores to complete the task.  This does take advantage of the cores because if you're doing something that's not processor intensive, say scrolling through a project page, and setting markers, you don't need full capacity.  Then when you're playing back or tracking a project with numerous tracks and plugins the turbo boost can kick in and give you better performance.