Concerned about Cubase 6.5 performance on new build Win7/N12

Are you sure you have the latest firmware and driver updates? They are very recent, see:
http://download.yamaha.com/search/product/?site=uk.yamaha.com&language=en&category_id1=16244&category_id2=16078&category_id3=&product_id=592444

Driver is at 1.65 and firmware is at 1.07