Iam computer illiterate so I was just wondering if a 1.8 g celeron processor with 512 ddr ram is adequate for scalp trading or is there something about the celeron that makes it ineffective for this style, right now i have been using 450 pentium 2 with windows 2000, thanks in advance, jh
Trying this from memory, so if it's not quite right, sorry... Intel is coming (or already out) with Celeron with 256 cache onboard. (That's what the prior generations of P4 had before the newest ones with 512K). If what you're talking about is one of the 256K cache jobs, probably a good deal. Unless you're doing heavy number crunching, faster computer won't show much of an increase in performance. More imporant is your connection online, + other delays your order has to go through before getting executed. Here's a link I looked up for you. http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/article/1518/
I am really not a computer expert but I have been daytrading eminis (average hold 2-5 min.) for more than a year with a Celeron 500 Mhz on cable and DSL and most of the time I get the quote I see when I click the mouse so... the processor is really not an issue I think. Anyway the Celeron is a P2 if I am not mistaken. I really don't think you need a very expensive machine to trade seriously. gnome: what would be the benefits of a Celeron with 256K cache compared to 128 K?
Your experience on fills reinforces that the speed of any modern computer is not a main issue for trade execution. Where speed might come in would be number crunching prior to making the trade decision. As you probably know, the cache is like a specialized flash memory on the CPU, in this case... very fast and the OS temporarily stores operating files there which are heavily accessed. Having inadequate cache will slow down the operation of your software. "The more cache, the better" is a general rule. (New Hard Drives, such as Western Digital SE line, have added 8mg of cache. Just a few years ago, they only had 256K. Way back when, if not mistaken, there was no HD cache.) The difference in cost and performance between Celeron and P4 is basically the difference in the amount of cache. There are things in a comuter system which are OK to economize on... money spent on upgrading cache is probably money well spent where performance is concerned.