Tascam US-1641 monitoring/overdubbing latency

[brewster1]

I've got a Tascam US-1641 running into an older generation Dell Latitude D630 and I'm recording on Mixcraft 4.0.
I've got 3 questions/issues:
1) I'm running the 2 monitor line outs into a stereo headphone amp so that the 3 people in my band can all wear headphones when we record. Is this the best way to do this?
2) When we have 9 tracks recording, we sometimes hear some latency, but if I open and close the Tascam settings window from the preferences menu in Mixcraft, even without changing any setting, the latency seems to go away long enough to get through a song.
3) When we tried overdubbing a track onto the 9 previously recorded tracks, we just couldn't get rid of the latency, even by changing the latency setting in the mixer settings window.

I've got the internet turned off in the PC, and the only thing using USB is the Tascam unit. I'm just wondering if I'm bumping up against the capability of the laptop. Any thoughts?
Thanks!

[Electriclight]

You can't eliminate all latency, ever. You need to experiment with buffer size settings in Mixcraft, if there are any options.

One key issue with laptops is hard drive speed, commonly 5400 rpm. Desktops and higher end laptops run at 7200 and have better results recording audio.

[brewster1]

Thanks, ElectricLight. Yes I know that about hard drives and have just ordered a new laptop for recording that has a 7200 RPM speed.