If you want to be safe... assured that all of your apps will run and all of your peripherals will work, you get WinXP Pro. It will be good until at least 2014. Most apps are not in 64-bit yet. So even if you have a 64-bit OS, most programs will run in "32-bit emulation"... which is OK. There is some risk that some things will not work properly with a 64-bit OS.
There's nothing wrong with that. You assumed answers to the questions I asked, and those assumptions may be totally reasonable. I'm less comfortable making those assumptions and I've found that asking questions usually results in being able to provide better answers. Cheers.
The total system price/performance says the X4 940 is a better bet, plus it can be easily overclocked: http://techreport.com/articles.x/16570/11 EDIT: Their latest eval puts the X2 550 Black edition as the current best value: http://techreport.com/articles.x/17023/15
Agreed 100%. Pete, with all due respect stop wasting everyone's time on this thread and please share with us the specs of your current PC. If you don't give us any idea about what you are currently using, and what kind of software applications you are using it for, this entire thread is a waste of time.
What minimum hardware would you people recommend for IB TWS? The goal is to have it running without any disconnects.
Zilog Z80. More seriously, anything will to the job. Disconnects are due to internet issues of some sort or server side issues. You *might* get disconnects if your machine is grossly short of RAM and is swapping heavily.
spec: Intel i7 920 (2.66ghz) Asus P6T Coolermaster V8 (heatsink) Antec Earthwatts(650W) Corsair 6gb TR3X6G1600 (1600mhz) the i7 has been very stable at 3.73ghz, overclocked from 2.66. currently windows xp only addresses 3.25gb out of 6gb of ram. waiting for windows 7
I didn't see a description of your trading style, apps, number of charts etc or where you might take it. Basically most trading apps don't need much compared with the top end of the range. So for normal (not automated high frequency trading) uses then Landis's comment about internet reliability is right on. Get XP32 bit for now and if you want to be running the flashiest eye candy out there get Windows 7 64 bit when it releases (or in a year or so). I suppose you could get Vista with a step up deal to W7. Frankly I've run all of them and I'm back to XP Pro 32 bit because there are no real speed differences for traders on any of them and everything that matters is compatible with XP Pro - zero hassles. Get a solid model with a moderate to high speed Core 2 duo or quad if you prefer. Get lots of fairly fast ram (1066 should be heaps). 4G of ram is more than enough for xp 32 bit. 2 matched sticks then you can add another 4G later if you want to get ram happy. Everything else as standard because current standards will be more than enough for trading. Capacity for enough cards for the number of monitors you might want to run. All those dells will be fine. The only difference I'd make is that I like quiet pcs so I'd be building it myself and using a big quiet power supply, quiet case fans and a lumpy big heat sink like a ninja.
A couple of really silly opinions in this thread. As has been said already, most traders will only need a basic system, perhaps with an extra video card or two for 4-6 monitors. As for memory, 2 gigs on xp is fine, more on vista. The cpu is not important, as any current cpu will perform far better than needed for the majority of traders. Good specs are only required for those do seriously intensive work, which it seems the OP is not (if he was, he'd likely know what he needs, or at least would state his needs). There is no need for overkill. GTS, $1000 will get a good gaming system. Half that is enough for a decent trading rig.