Win 7 pro 64 bit requires 2GB, TWS says 4GB+ and I'm most certainly very much on the plus side as I could see the performance degradation once I had it configured to my liking. Re Dell Outlet, they are very specific about only shipping to end users addresses, so going that route would void my warranty. It would also put me at the tender mercies of the Thai customs department, something you don't want as I found from personal experience. If a company ships to me and accepts the task of getting stuff cleared, it is not my problem. Like the Dell quote I was given, I know for a fact that the goods will be shipped from the Malaysian plant in Penang, but the quote I get is 'delivered', ie Dell has to get the customs clearance and pay duties at the appropriate rate.
1650 is not latest and greatest... so you are not chasing tech at all with that... if we were talking E5-2690's/2687W... different story... I'll take a look at the thread you posted..
like you said, is the cost of doing business... which a lot of people dont understand... I spend quite a bit in tech annually, not as much as I used to, but still... though I am able to write it off... so that is the main diff with me and others... keep in mind the 27"'s used to be $1K+ not even 8 months ago.... so $650 is not bad...
to simplify, the T3600 has internal SATA ports that are not used if a DELL RAID Controller is ever installed. It is basically one or the other. How are you planning to use the drives? what is your backup plan for your data? are you getting an external drive for backups? if your system crashes (lost disk), what is your recovery plan?
Thanks. I meant not chasing the latest and greatest as in I'll keep whatever I buy for 5 years and not change just because something new comes out next year. Like I'm still using my iPhone 3GS - still fit for purpose. Chip prices can get scary expensive. CPU world lists the Jan 2013 prices as follows; E5-1620 - $294 E5-1650 - $583 E5-1660 - $1,080 I've emailed Dell to get the price difference on the E5-1650 and the other items you suggested, so I'll know hopefully by tomorrow.
From the quote I got it seems the RAID controller is installed as standard. I have in mind windows and programs on the SSD, data (and any program that insists on data storage on the same drive) on the 500GB hard disk. Basically keep the SSD as uncluttered as possible. I have an external hard disk that I plan to use for backup. I'll need to clean it up after I transfer all that's on it to the Acer (still loads of room there). When I was using Rithmic and tick data, data volume stored increased rapidly. With IB data it accumulates at a far slower rate. I don't need tick data for my style of trading so it's fine. Re system crash, what would you recommend? I currently have windows (home premium) and MS Office disks so I never thought of that, just reinstall if necessary. Not sure if Dell will provide OEM disks for Win 7 Pro, or the ability to download and reinstall if necessary.
if that is the case, you do not need a 256GB... I would strongly recommend you reduce that to 128GB... I will follow up with you offline on the recovery piece... I have ISO's for W7 from my MSDN sub and licenses for Win7 Pro that I dont use... DELL wont give you media unless you ask(and pay) for it.. but I personally never use the OEM stuff, I install Win7 enterprise on all my desktops and just add the drivers that are needed... removing all the bloatware that way and ensuring stuff is clean per say...
The mobo has a controller built into it which you can choose whether to use RAID or not. You can also buy an optional (higher performance, more features?) add-on RAID controller. Usually now days, Dell sends a Windows disk for an additional charge... about $3, I think.
Dell provided price differentials as follows; Upgrade to E5-1650 - additional $400 Extend warranty on T3600 from 3 years to 5 years - $480 Extend warranty on monitors from 3 years to 5 years - $28 to $40 (depends on model) Monitors are definitely worth it. Any advice on the rest? Also looking at the specs for the 27" monitors, available connections are; 1 Dual Link Digital Visual Interface connectors (DVI-D) with HDCP 1 DisplayPort 1.2 (DP) 1 High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) Supplied cable is DVI (VGA too, but I'm ignoring that). Which would be the best option for a 3 monitor setup, given the 2560x1440 resolution?
Check your Task Manager with all trading apps loaded. If it's not actually using 6 cores, save the money and opt for the 4-core, E5-1620, CPU. $480 to extend the warranty for only 2 years? Laughable... by then the computer won't even be worth $480.