laptops allow you to sit in the worst positions imaginable. I doubt many here are tracking their CPU/GPU/memory usage to feel the benefit of a tower.
My laptop is quite like a bird now, but the fan was running at a relatively high velocity for most of yesterday's trading session. The afternoon, that is. Also, I got a message from Excel that it couldn't open a workbook because of insufficient memory available. This has not been a common problem for me up until now. I'm not sure how much yesterday's abnormal market session contributed as I do use multiple tick/volume charts. It wasn't a problem yesterday since I was done trading anyway, but I'm starting to think that I'd need to upgrade.
Get both—a mini ITX with high-quality cooling for heavy workloads and during summer and a laptop for portability and to reduce power consumption the rest of the time. For many, selecting either a desktop or laptop will not meet their requirements throughout the year.
It really depends, i am using a high end laptop and i will never go back to a desktop. My trading is fully automated so i don't need a lot of screen to display all my charts, i can monitor my algorithm wherever i go, work on new projects wherever i am, ... Even if i were trading manually and would need some screen size for my charts i still would go for a laptop over a desktop. Connect it to a ultrawide screen and you have all the screen size you need. Mobility is much more important for me so i can trade from home, the office, ... Another big advantage is the battery, no problem when power goes out. Just turn on the mobile hotspot on your smartphone and you can continue trading or doing whatever it is you where doing. If you take care of your device, i use mine for nothing but managing my algo's and other trading/investing projects, so no garbage on my laptop at all, it can run forever without any problems. Cooling is important so i use an extra fan under my laptop as a stand and i never have any overheating problems at all.
What you need will very much be dictated by ambient temperature; laptops can't keep themselves cool when room temperatures reach the 30-40 degree Celcius range and the heat/noise tradeoff makes purchasing a small desktop a practical and cost-effective solution. If you don't mind your computer equipment staying above 60+ degrees Celcius with the fans running on overdrive for at least 4-5 months in the year (in many parts of the world), then by all means, stick with the laptop only solution. If you live closer to the North or South pole then heat management becomes less of an issue.
What sort of trader can't afford an air conditioner to keep room temps nominal? A trader that can't afford to trade.
Any specific recommendations for one? I'm thinking I'll be getting a stationary now. I'll keep my laptop for back-up and 'out of house' work.
Thermaltake Core V1 Chassis Thermaltake Smart 430W 80+ White Continuous Power Noctua NH-L9a AM4, Premium Low-Profile CPU Cooler (optional) AMD Ryzen 5 2600 Processor MSI Performance Gaming AMD Ryzen 1st and 2nd Gen Mini-ITX Motherboard Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4 WD Blue 3D NAND 500GB Internal PC SSD Order total: $476 (Amazon) Probably a bit overkill for a trading rig but a good starting point nonetheless.
Nice. I want overkill, though. That's a self-build, right? Any readily available commercial options or is it worth building one yourself? I don't think I can order from Amazon (European resident), but I will find the same stuff in my country.