Man i know that pain in the ass reinstalling all ya goodies.
As i said try Studio one, adobe audition or ableton and feel if the workflow feels better.
Studio one isnt that far from cubase and in my opinion more easy to use, less mouse clicks.
STill i dont use them except from ableton. But ableton without a RME kinda sucks.
The thingy is u can have a hell of a CPU but if youre soundcard sucks nothing works.
And i find all fire wire, usb what ever cards suck big time. Onli PCI/PCI-E cards like Uad, Sonic core and RME do excelent. Where the RME is the winner if u use asio.