Windows no longer supports Firewire. I have one of these, but connected via ADAT to an RME RayDAT PCIe card. You’re going to need a new audio interface anyway, but if you get one with ADAT connectivity, at least you can continue to use the MOTU 828 MkII as a front end. I would recommend the RME Digiface USB, if only because RME drivers are simply the best.
Not sure why you think you would need Thunderbolt on a Windows laptop.
Yes, I was still doing a bit of research on some audio interfaces and a bit of the Mac stuff….Boy, it is a minefield out there!
Thank you for your insight. I may start a new thread for Windows-based laptops and try to see what people are using and what some of their audio interfaces are….Tricky stuff. Thanks very much for your help!
Regards,
Ken K
If Laptop, MacBook Pro if you can afford one with 24-32GB+ RAM and an M# Pro CPU with at least 1TB Storage.
Otherwise, PC… That way, you can upgrade the RAM and Storage Later. x64 CPUs in PC Laptops have been great since 2019/2020, and ARM is still an option there (though everything is likely soldered, so same issue as with the MacBooks). You can cheaply upgrade a PC Laptop to 32-64GB RAM and put a 2-4TB NVMe in there for a lot less than you could dream of getting it from Apple.
If Desktop, PC. I have a hard time justifying a Mac Mini or Studio Purchase because the upcharge in spec upgrades is insane when I can max out the storage slots and RAM in a Tower for less (while ending up with more).
This can depend heavily on how you actually plan to use the PC, though.
Are you producing Hip Hop/R&B or Pop Music, or are you doing large orchestral pieces?
Bear in mind that if you want use Thunderbolt my experience suggests trying to install a thunderbolt card on windows is a WORLD OF PAIN. I eventually went back to Inta Audio who made my computer to have it done properly. Windows can be very tricky in this regard. My Apollo X6 now works pretty well.
Hi there, and thank you for your response!
I do original light and heavy jazz as well as movie soundtrack style compositions. I am looking forward to my new laptop and upgrading to Cubase 14 Pro!
Regards,
Ken K
Hello and thanks for your advice.
My build on the Lenovo Legion includes a Thunderbolt port as well as USB-A. I will start with a small 4-place USB Hub and then move up to a thunderbolt hub.
I am glad to ehar that yours is working well!
Regards,
Ken K
I wish my Windows 11 over-install had gone as well. All my subsequent updates fail and on one occasion I lost the use of both my mouse and keyboard. I had to do 4 forced shutdowns to get into safe mode and do a restore.
What do you mean by “over-install”?
One computer with a previous win os that you upgraded to 11?
Or…a clean install of win11 after first completely reformatting your c drive?
Most computers can just reset the windows installation. OEMs now have their machine databased and Windows will install all the correct drivers and utility software without a recovery partition.
The recovery partitions on those machines are practically a waste of space, now 
If I reset my Desktop or Laptop, it will be like the day I bought it, just with the latest Windows 11 update on it.
@KKSky Have you found your way through the minefield? Just curious.
Hi there!
Thanks for asking. Today I ordered a MIDI Interface : iConnectivity mioXM, and for an audio interface, I ordered a Tascam US-16x08. I did order the PC laptop I had spec’d as it looks very good. Once I get it, I will wipe the installed Win 11 Home edition and do a fresh install. I also have a suggestion list I found on Sweetwater about best ways to optimize Win 11 for music creation.
The Laptop has a 16” screen, I felt that 17” would be a bit too much for the distance I am going to be working from it. It comes standard with a 1TB SSD, and I added another 1 TB SSD. Planning on starting with partition size of 400GB for Drive C, then 600GB for Drive D ‘working’ projects, and then using the entire 1TB for Drive E for previously finished projects.
It was nice of you to ask. I am always open for suggestions….The laptop is on order but the ETA is Oct 29-31….In the meantime, I am studying up on the manual for Cubase 14 Pro, as there are similarities to my old version, but so many new features to consider as well.
This Forum is excellent and has provided me with a lot of great information. Thank you to everyone!
Regards,
Ken K
I have to say, I love my mioXL. That little unit is jammed-packed with a ton of features, and that network connection will certainly come in handy. I got my original one a little over a year ago, and just got another one for my other studio workstation.
The Auracle software takes a bit of getting used to, and it’s got a bit learning curve (for me, anyway) but once you get it all down it’s really quite nice. I hope you enjoy that guy!
Imperative!
A very minor point: 400 GB for the C: drive seems a bit much to me. (With my desktop PC I have an M2 “500” GB C: drive and it has 190 GBs used and 275 GBs free space. My biggest program is Visual Studio at around 5 GBs. My Steinberg folder, with 5 versions of Cubase and one Dorico uses 4.5 GBs. The VST3 folder is just 3 GBs, (140 files).) (I also have another M2 and 4 HDDs.)
(I like (()s) - { I think it’s the (**programmer) in->me!); }
Anyways, good luck!
That is so great to hear! Thanks for posting about that! I used to use (years ago) a an M-Audio MidiSport 2x4 and it was nice. I like how it showed up in the instector so easily and easy to configure. I am hoping that the mioXM will have similar workings and showing up in the inspector much the same way. I generally have ‘All Midi Inputs’ selected, and then choose which of the keyboards or modules/tone generators as my choice so it is pretty quick and easy to choose whcih one for which track.
Glad that you are enjoying the mioXL!
Regards,
Ken K
Thanks very much for your advice! I thought it was a bit too big, but wasn’t sure with updates, etc how much I should set aside. This laptop is strictly a music computer for Cubase 14 Pro. I use my other computer for other stuff, but this one is strictly for music. I might think about lowering it to 100GB or lower. Thanks again for your input and advice!
Regards,
Ken K
If you plan to keep your instruments, libraries, samples and etc. on a drive C then 500 may be a good option.
If you plan to reinstall Windows from scratch then read a bit about autounnatend.xml and then find a generator for these. It speeds up installation and allows to skip some of bloat ware during that stage 
The OP has two 1 terabyte drives.
I believe it’s good practice to have nothing whatsoever on the C: drive other than that which insists on being there (*.vst3 files, and the like). I assume MacOS has an equivalent situation.
Apart from anything else, it makes it easy to reinstall the OS without having to worry about downloading/restoring-from-a-backup-of those libraries. Just point the library manager to where they live.
Thanks for this advice. I will definitely check into it!Regards,
Ken K
I personally don’t do it that way myself, especially on the laptops. Here is my first-few-hours routine, the key being patient (and note that there is zero daw/music stuff being part of the below……..
I wipe the c drive, do a clean win11 install (I use pro as its extra features are dirt-cheap to add to the home edition as an upgrade), let win update itself over the course of 10-20 minutes or so…
…then take a manual look at device manager to insure all drivers present..if any missing, I go get them from whatever online source (even the direct intel download assistant is useful to immediately grab drivers that windows update may not even yet have)….
…then tweak the overall look I want (dark with small text, lists-not-icons etc)
…then I permanently kill anything remotely to do with hibernate or sleep via the registry etc tools…
then I set the computer win11 power scheme (disregard the steinberg power scheme…we’re not there yet) to “ultimate”…
..then I go through device manager and kill any “suspend power” choices associated with the tree…as power scheme itself elsewhere doesn’t always get all of them (per Pete)…
…I then go into bios and disable SOME of the “I’ll NEVER want the computer to hang me up with this/that”….
….dusable any reference to system restore COMPLETELY (that’s just me)..
Completely DISABLE uac….and I mean disable…I don’t want any sort of windows security warnings interrupting me when I hit a command…EVER. But that’s just me 
…arrange initial various things where I want them on the desktop…
…run built-in cleandisk (cuz I ‘m a clean kinda guy) to delete various update stuff win11 just did…not that’s not the same as trim.
Now…..it’s an hour later…I have my initial “clean” windows sorta the way I like…so..
NOW….I install Macrium Reflect (I own perpetual 8) and do a backup image of the c drive to one of my external nvme drives.
Voila….THIS is my clean “starter” should I ever want to “start over” by wiping the drive. Which curiously I rarely do But hey, peace of mind.
By the way, I use dual 4tb wd black sn850x nvmes in all the machines (including the desktops) as well as a few 8tb external enclosure wd 850s.
Nothing is partitioned. All full capacities. In the laptops, I do follow (as someone else suggested) the idea of system stuff being on the c drive and daw-oriented stuff living on the internal d drive. It does make for somewhat easier ways of keeping track of things for me.