Y'all are CRAZY about video cards with noisy fans. The PROPER video cards for a trading rig are workstation cards... low power draw, no noisy fans... like Nvidia Quadro NVS 290/295. ATI has a new equivalent line, but it's much more expensive. Matrox might have one too by now... Top of the line Quadro NVS 295s are about $50-$60 on eBay.... just be sure to get the DVI-DP adapters with them (unless you have DVI-DP cables on your monitors).
yep..for OP-every single component is important. if you do have Pc building experience-i would build by myself. for "general" trading you want OK performance(slow,low temp dual core CPU < 3.0GHz will work just fine), fan-less video card,good,quiet,80% + efficient PSU bottom line-you need PC that quiet,does not generate a lot of heat and low power consumption. if you can't build it your self-go with some low end Dell.
your going to college right ? your gonna be moving your computer all the time. I was looking at buying a mini cube for myself http://www.avadirect.com/plist.asp?keywords=mini+cube http://www.avadirect.com/product_details_configurator.asp?PRID=14250 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- better SSD - all your programs will boot sooper fast more snappiness better CPU- u'll be able to run a lot of stuff at the same time, finish cpu intensive stuff much quicker and what are you gonna run ? a music player, internet browser and a trading platform ? having a better hard drive will ensure much less data loss, less crashes etc... tad bit more important than being able to do a backtest 30 seconds quicker imo most people believe cpu's are bottlenecked by the hard drives http://superuser.com/questions/72747/the-bottlenecks-of-any-computer-what-to-look-for
I'm using one of these Shuttle Barebones myself and my experience is very mixed: Performance, noise etc. is ok. But after one year of daily use my PC crashed and turned out to be kaputt beyond repair. The seller replaced it with a new barebone, but the whole operation took 4 long weeks. That is the problem with these special hardware barebones: in case of a repair you have to return them to the manufacturer and that may take longer than you like. I was aware of this but certainly expected the rig to stick together longer than a year. So my advice: use only off-the-shelf hardware which you may replace yourself after a visit to the next PC-Store.
Wouldn't go that far. Assuming anyone who's into trading can afford the difference between a low-end and a good machine, suggest steering clear of Dell's budget models (same goes for HP and others as well)... and buy a Precision Line computer... especially if considering 3 or more monitors. Precisions are MUCH better all around, including support and service. HP workstations are good, too.. just not as well priced.
It really depends on what you're doing with it. If you're doing backtesting and such, then you need to pay attention to the CPU and memory a lot. If you don't do backtesting then a dual core processor is okay and a quad core is plenty; getting 6GB of memory and an SSD is priority. Contrary to what people said, most video cards are not noisy when used for 2D but you can go for a cheap Quadro if you like. Even though a 10K HDD is faster than a 7200rpm one, it's still a bottleneck for the whole PC. SSD doesn't cost a fortune anymore so it's the logical choice.
Still looking to buy a new PC. I have to pull the trigger before next semester starts. I have a quick question... Would 7200 RPM with RAID 1 be faster than a 10000 RPM?
Also, if anyone knows of any deals on a pre built system, I would be greatly appreciate it if you let me know. I plan to eventually run two 22 inch monitors and all I run is MBT desktop pro if anyone has any more advice. I'm taking an excel class this semester also if that means anything. Looking in the price range of about 700 doll hairs...
if you are not planning to play games on it, why on earth would you get a bulky pc that sounds like a vacuum. Get yourself 21" imac + a second monitor, or a 27" imac. Then install windows 7 on it as a bootcamp. In regard to hard drive, get the intel x-25m SSD, it's order of magnitude faster than any 7200 or 10k rpm mechanical hdd. It's the most significant upgrade you can get for a computer as IO is ALWAYS the bottleneck, unfortunately it's often overlooked by the masses in favor of cpu/memory, which only offers marginal performance gain once you hit the threshold. The ideal setup is a 27" base imac with a 120GB intel x-25m with both osx/windows 7 and your trading app on it, then a 1TB external usb hdd to store all non essential stuff (like backtest data logs, porn, videos, etc.. ) I wouldnt try to save too much $ here, as the computer will probably be your most used/important item for a number of years to come, there is no point trying to save a few hundred $. A few less hookers!
Thanks much for the input. I would defiantly go for the mac but I can not rationalize the cost. They are wonderful systems, no doubt. However, I'm in college and that means I'm poor. I'm looking for a system that will be solid for the next 2-3 years until I have the money (or account size) to rationalize something of greater quality. In the meantime, all available cash goes to school or my mb trading account. I am looking into SSD's but my original question about 7200 rpm + RAID vs 10000 rpm still stands. happy new years everyone