hi y'all. Just thinking of getting a compaq w/ amd athlon 64bit. Does anyone have any experience w/ this setup in terms of reliability, heat,battery length . Intention is to use as a trading pc.(10 charts open,1 broker app, 1 IB's TWs running , a couple of excel sheets? You guys think it will run apps w/ little issues in this dominant 32bit world? thanks.
Unless you plan on using more than 4GB of memory, there's not going to be any noticeable advantage in going with a 64-bit setup. And since you will not be running 64 bit apps, your 64-bit processor will be forced to essentially run as a 32-bit processor, so you're not going to be gaining much of anything.
i have 2 computers each under 1 1/2 years old. one is a athlon and other is a p4. i thought the athlon was great but a after few months it just had problem after problem subporting my charts and excution system. it crushed a few times a week easy so i switched and used my p4. since the change i have not had one problem. i had another amd computer few years back and had a crashing problem after a year with that also. my advice is to buy a p4 and load it up with ram. its amazing how good it works comepared to my athlon its not even a close second. i only use the althon for my stock filter and a backup just incase. also if your looking to add a few monitors look at the geforce fx5200 pci card i have 2 and love them.
http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=27483 whole 'nother perspective on the matter on this previous thread.... Previous Athlons might have had compatibility issues, however these can be traced to the operating system loaded nad the sub-sub-sub options being used. It always remains frustrating to have, say, an Excel work on one platform and not on any other. If that was the case, then contact the MFGR of the software application or browse their website for similar experiences or solutions. Push come to shove, contact their tech support department by email (lower priority) and they will either create a case or share previous work-around experiences. At any rate, you owe it to yourself to contact someone (software writers, etc.) regarding these experiences....
Although there are only little 64Bit applications available right now and windows xp/2003 server 64bit are still in beta stage you won't gain too much performance compared to current intel 32bit processors. However, the AMD 64bit is extremely fast in 32bit operations as well and therefore it's a wise buy imho as it beats the p4 performance for a cheaper price
Been running a Athlon 64 laptop for 3 months.....IMHO it runs everything better than the only P4 I have...(2800) .....this is very subjective of course...but I can have a lot of windows open....run charting, execution, chatrooms, sound, etc, with no hanging, and the CPU never chokes. I rarely reboot this computer.... Just never had that luck with Pentiums. I bought this in lieu of a 3Gig pent 4 HP lap.
Spyderman, nice to see that you are doing ok with yours. My Compaq AMD 64 Presario with XP home edition has been hanging, a lot of non responding apps, a setconfig.exe error report that shows up everytime I open/close IE or TWS. Spent afternoon talking to them w/ no luck. I realize that it is probably a software issue or a componenet install gone bad. I wish they put win 2000 here though. Everytime I see Windows home edition, it scAres me for it reminds me of the Windows me edition which was a nightmare. I am thinking of putting the Win 2k OS but they said they would cease suport of it if I change the OS. Anyway, we will see what happens.
there's only a Windows XP 64-Bit Edition for 64-Bit Extended Systems right now which is beta stage. I doubt that they will release a 64-Bit home edition. Running the 64-Bit Version right now is pretty much pain in the ass as the 64-Bit drivers from other hardware manufacturers are still lacking. Like ATI still didn't officially release their 64-Bit Beta drivers.