Go have your local geek shop build one. They put an Athlon XP 2000 in this shiny aluminum/magensium case. Very impressive. Its 5 fans set up a nice little breeze.
Macs are fine machines and you can do a lot of tasks in a very elegant way with them. For trading they are not appropriate. You can't use most datafeeds, trading/charting/analysing software on a mac. Even with Java you are still very limited and I think IB's TWS (which is newly available for Macs and Unix) has some problem on Macs too. Maybe you can trade accasionally from home with it, but don't expect too much.
Thanks for the answer. If you were me, and needed a reasonably priced computer for home needs, what would you recommend. I will be using mostly for music, digital photos, word processing, surfing the net, and the usual. We use quicken for banking. I am concerned about space. I know that the flatscreen monitors for pc's are still pretty pricy, and i am use to a 19 inch screen. I am afraid of running out of space on my hard drive (13 gig)..just because of the photos and music files. Should I just get another drive and keep what I have? I am running windows 98, and have no idea what the newer versions have to offer for the home. (At work, we use windows 2000, but I don't really have a handle on it, but there we have 3 tech guys, so I just call and they come fix whatever I manage to screw up...which seems like a lot....and why is that? How come I could understand all the home versions of windows i've had. Is it just because of the network and I am clueless about all that? I also have trouble sizing the windows on 2000? Thanks
Hi everyone, just wanted to give an update where I am (this is going to be a longer process than I figured I have yet to check out newegg, mainly because no matter how tech' looking I may be trading with dual monitors, I have NO idea what half of you are writing about (I mean this nicely) and so until I find somebody who I know who can put a tower together I've been spending sometime at different computer stores. Below is something I priced today, which seems very high compared to what most of you were saying, but again once I find a buddy who comes out of the closet and admits he/she is a computer builder I'm kinda stuck. I'll ask around church this weekend. anyway here goes, I think I'm getting closer to what you all were mentioning, apart from the price ;-( KT3 Ultra AMD Athlon XP Cooler and 3yr warranty (is that unlimited cokes 2- DDR 512 40g hard drive Geforce4 mx440 samsung 52x windows 200pro pluse case, keyboard etc, etc... For the amazing sum of $1172, which is out of my ball park anyway, also don't know if that included some kind of net card, I mentioned 3Com, they don't carry them, but he did ask me to get him the list of comp's from IB. Could somebody just give me in very simple terms what the 3Com card does ? Again thank you all for your help and patient, did I mention patient I really do believe I'm better along than I was a week ago, thanks. Later, Andy
Andy, IMO (and by your own postings), it sounds to me that you are not one who would easily be able to configure a tower on your own (not that there is anything wrong with that as I am in that catagory also). Please consider the pros and cons of building your own tower. one pro is that you know exactly what is going into your system (i.e. you can specify). Also, the price is cheaper. The advantage of buying an off the shelf system (i.e. Dell, Gateway, etc.,) is that you typically are getting the included warranty, tech support, etc. This said, you may want to shop online to see what specials are being offered by Dell, etc., and then see if the group that is building your system can match the performance, price, and service. As I said, just my 2 cents. Z
3 com is a network card which if you have a cable modem or something other than a phone line for your Internet connection you will need. More than likely you will if not now then in the near future when you discover the difference between dial up and high speed Internet. My personal feeling is don't buy the top of the line cause its already outdated. but Processor bus speed is important and something i do recommend. If the computer uses SD-DDR ram you are limited to 133mhz Bus speed. The RD-ddr ram is much faster. When a program is running some of it is loaded into your ram ( the more ram the more that can be held in it) otherwise it looks to the harddrive which is alot slower. So slower system bus speed would actually cause the whole system to slow( Just imagine Ram as a funnel) The processor can feed all it wants into the top until it over flows but it can only come out as fast as the smaller side will allow to the output) Besides System bus later on down the road is not easily or cheaply upgraded. (motherboard, Processor & ram must be replaced) I just Purchased the Geforce4 mx440 Although it was a nightmare to get working(Probably because my system is older) It seems like a decent chip. I have only used it for the past hour. id have to let you know. I would advise you to skimp on the easy upgrades such as less ram (Although 512 is recomended for 2 monitors) Im sure it would work with 256) to start maybe skip the cdrw or dvd and stuff like that. Build from a strong base ******* I also Recommend checking the hardware section at top of this page for some very good info!
Andy4 I think you've overpriced that machine!!!! Check out www.pricewatch.com you will be able to find a better price on windows 2000 on that search engine. Also, u only need 60mb video card for 2d businnes apps. That would bring the price down, too. What did you price that card at by the way?? Just how many programs are you gonna be running? Maybe u can get by on 256? u can upgrade memory at a later time. An OEM version of a good cable modem isnt that much either. I saw on Newegg a AMD xp for 70 bucks. U can always upgrade the processor too. I think u can build that machine for 400 bucks less. And with that MSI motherboard, u wont have to be worried about that machine becoming obsolete. Sterling
Unfortunately I can't tell you which reasonably priced computer you should buy. I live in Europe so the the market situation is not exactly the same as in the US. There are good responses from others here in this thread so you might get an idea from that. However, I believe the common principle everywhere is "you get what you pay for". I worked as a LAN admin and HW/SW coordinator for years. I configured, installed and maintained computers for about hundred employees in our department. I was the guy who was called if a user had a problem. We only have IBM equipment here and their business PCs run very fine. Over the years we had hundreds of them, running 9 hours, 5 days, for 3 years each. I can only remember three situations when I had to call a technician. After there three years many of these machines are bought by me and others for use at home - never had any problems (but their notebooks and home PCs are not that great...) On the other side I am also the guy who is called by his friends and family members if one of their computers don't work properly. They all own these common home PCs which are so aggresively advertised with "xxx megahertz" everywhere. Lots of defects, hardware incompatiblities, SW problems, etc., but of course they are cheaper and you can save hundreds of dollars with them. So if you want a PC just for home use and don't want them as a workstation you can be happy with one of them. I only bought business PCs for the past twelve years for my home use and I recommend them for everyone for whom money is no sensitive issue and who doesn't want to build his own PC. Windows 2000 is very stable. I use it at work and at home. The best operating system I have ever had. But its not targeted for the consumer market and sometimes you can't get a driver for consumer hardware. So probably Windows XP is the better choice for you if you want a new operating system. Don't go with Windows ME! If you are happy with your current hardware you could just buy a new harddisk. Maybe you can get a "trial" version of Windows XP and see if you like it.
3Ware and Adaptec are much better that Promise and HighPoint for this reason. However, Raid Level 1 still requires backing up data because OS/viruses/software can still cause data corruption. Some cards support multiple mirrored sets. Mike