W3520 Processor 2.66GHz 8M 4.8GT/s Dell Precision T3500 6GB, DDR3 ECC SDRAM Memory 1066MHz, 3X2GB Dell Precision 512MB PCIe x16 NVIDIA NVS 420 Quad Monitor,4DVI,Dell Precision 80GB SATA, 7.2KRPM Hard Drive with 8MB DataBurst Cache,Dell Precision TX500 C1 All SATA Hard Drives Non- RAID for 1 Hard Drive 1 Vista Premium Downgrade Relationship Desktop 468-1225 Windows XP 64 SP2 with WindowsVista Business 64 Edition Integrated Intel chipset SATA 3.0Gb/s controller I have been quoted $1879 Would like to hear anyone's input on this set up. Thanks.
At least get it off of Dell's Outlet site. T3400, C2Q/C2D w/ 2GB RAM and XP is plenty enough horsepower for 99% of trading. Save $Thousand.
http://www.dell.com/html/us/segments/bsd/ecatalog/0808/ecatalog.htm they have both 3400 and 3500 with difference in price of about 250. Question: is the xeon in the 3500 going to give me a much better performance for my trading rig than the Core 2 Duo? I always assumed xeons were better for server functions than desktop.
I don't know about the "server vs desktop" idea, but the T3500 is likely not worth the extra $250 in a trading rig... seeing as how the CPU usage remains close to zero nearly all day. Check out "CPU-Mark" to get an idea of relative grunt.
What are you going to be doing with the thing? If you're running numerous simulations or have 4 different brokers and charting platforms, maybe you should step it up. But the t3400 is a great rig for trading (I have it, no problems, CPU usage is 10% maybe 20% on peaks with Tradestation, a front end, and IB running) In a lot of ways even the T3400 is overkill, I just got it so I'm set for the next 3-5 years.
The T3400 is a VERY competent machine. It's not much in the way of overkill, as it's virtually the first step above the ubiquitous "el-cheapo" mobo found in 80-90% of the world's desktops. While it may be the "1st step up", it's actually a GIANT step... x38 mobo, 2, PCIEx16 slots, 375W PSU. And at a fair price, it's all good.
Buy a T3400... you won't get hosed and you won't have to bother with BIY. (Ever notice how the "BIY computer" guys are like Obamabots? And the "get Linux... and solve all your problems"... A single, drone, Pavlovian response... with no line of thought...)