If your copy of XP is "retail" instead of "OEM".. and your hardware makers provide drivers for XP, you'll be OK... still will need to do a fresh OS install on the new mobo, however.
For the extra $100...you should buy the i7....The i5 does NOT have HYPERTHREADING! And will reduce your processing power considerably... the i7 2600 will have 50% more processing speed! Don't sell yourself short for $100 bucks! You can use the same motherboard! ... And dont waste your money on the CPU cooler unless you plan on overclocking...you just don't need it!
Crap, Win Xp OEM version. At the same time the cost differnence between the retail of both and buying a Win 7 Pro version comes out at worst breakeven and most likely I'm ahead, just annoying. The question for hyperthreading I have is how many applicatins actually take advatage of it? If during the day I am only trading and nothing else on the computer, do I really need hyperthreading? WHen I am using the sim to fine tune my flying skills it is only after hours. So if I am ony=ly running a trading app, sim app , or the backtesting app, do I really need to be concerned with hyperthreading? THanks
If you use some of the more modern trading applications like Tradestation 9.1...you are not maximizing the power of the software...Backtesting is very resource intensive... I was just trying to see how you can maximize your resources. I do recommend you get Windows 7 64 bit....
The "backtesting" thing is a wildcard. If you do any kind of optimizations, which means crunch in the same math formula for hundreds of variations of different parameter settings, then it is very obvious it would be CPU intensive. Do you "need" it? Speed is always good. I think a better question to ask is: will your trading software make use of it because not all do. TradeStation up to 9.0 doesn't support multi-core multi-thread. With 9.1 it is supposed to but it is not out yet. RE: XP... the 32-bit version has a limitation on 4GB. If you use 32-bit you would not be using the full 8GB memory in your list. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa366778(v=vs.85).aspx#physical_memory_limits_windows_xp
I forgot about the XP memory limit. Thanks for the reminder. While I'd rather not spend more, I do like Win7 on the other computers. My backtesting is going to be using Traders Studio. I guess sometimes you need to reinvest in the business.
Went with an I7, and Win 7. Bought a slightly different video card also. I am hoping it all comes in this week. I look at the deals pages of various sites and I could probably buy more from Dell for a little less, especially considering I am reusing the case, keyboard, power supply, mouse, DVD/CD, but I guess I enjoy the build option for my trade computer. Newegg has a fair deal on a 23" Asus monitor, so I may add another LCD and lose one of my older Dell 19" CRT's that have been going for 8 years now.
32 or 64 bit ? I've been reluctant to go Win 7/64 bit because I use MS Office a lot....and VBA. If you use API calls in your VBA, you've got a lot of modifications ahead to make it work under 64 bit Win 7. It's a huge pain. Unless you are running a huge set of programs at once, I don't see the need for a 64 bit address space. Moreover...many software programs don't take advantage of that on their own....yet.
64bit, I think I'm good at this point with what I use. I'm going to have to double check. Man, technology can be a pain.
Any thoughts on SSD drives? I have yet to find one on Newegg that doesn't have real issues. I kick myself for not buying a regular drive a couple of months ago when they were dirt cheap. I intended to for back up but figured I'd wait and now the floods are causing bullcrap prices.