How important is the 2nd level cache ? What would be the difference between say 4MB and 2MB ? I am looking at two laptops , one is about $100 cheaper and also comes with 1 x 2048 MB RAM as opposed to 2 x 1024 MB for the other (cheaper to upgrade) . But the less expensive laptop comes with an Intel Core 2duo T5670 1.8GHZ, 2MB L2 cache, the other with a Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 2.2 GHZ, 4MB L2 cache Shared video RAM is also 384 MB vs 358 MB for the cheaper model. Do these things make any difference for charting on multiple monitors ?
IMO, L2 Cache is the #1 decision factor (with clock speed a close second) when it comes to buying a new processor. You will notice a HUGE difference in those two processors running side by side. Especially in a laptop. I would also recommend the upgrade (if available) to a 7200rpm hard drive although this is less noticable and probably not necessary for trading.
You question might be about the L2, but if you have to worry about the $100 difference, you are in the wrong place.
I agree with kinar (not the useless condescending post by Tums). And the video memory is irrelevant. The extra $100 is well worth it. Even bigger speed factors though would be either tweaking and cleaning up Vista or a clean install of XP Pro if you are able. Get rid of norton/mcaffee also, replace with free Avira Antivir (AVG is now dying). I find many current computers with powerful hardware run slower than older XP ones because of Vista and Norton and loads of junk programs running at startup in the background. Somewhere here I have posted complete cleanup instructions but primarily for XP, please search if interested.
The number one criteria that makes or breaks the CPU calculations/sec is actually the Front Speed Bus (FSB). You want to get the fastest one available and I believe for laptops the fastest is currently the 800 MHz FSB CPUs: T9300 2.5GHz/800Mhz FSB, 6MB L2 Cache T9500 2.6GHz/800Mhz FSB, 6MB L2 Cache Dell sells these in their XPS laptops. Of course on workstations/servers you can get the 1600 MHz FSB CPUs which is why I prefer to use workstations for maximum speed. Sid
paulxx's xp reference: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=115313&perpage=6&pagenumber=5