I need to buy a new trading computer, but really don't need anything at the high end. I came across this Dell T7500 for sale by a local computer shop and would appreciate any input. It appears to be way more than I need but seems like a deal too good too pass up. TIA. For sale is a used Dell Precision T7500 Workstation / Server. It also works great as a powerful desktop computer. With the appropriate video card installed it can also be used a nice gaming machine. It comes standard with a 30 day warranty. The specs are as follows: Dual Xeon quad core X5570 2.93GHz cpu. (2 cpus are installed). The cpus also support hyperthreading. Cpu socket is 1366. 48GB tri-channel DDR3 ECC ram (4G x12) 500GB sata hard drive dvdrw drive Nvidia Quadro FX5800 4GB video card 1000W power supply integrated sound integrated gigabit lan usb 2.0 ports Windows 7 Pro 64 bit installed with updates 30 day warranty $269. plus tax
Like a memory stick, there are no moving parts to anSSD. Rather, information is stored in microchips. Conversely, ahard disk driveuses a mechanical arm with a read/write head to move around and read information from the right location on a storage platter. This difference is what makesSSDso much faster.
This rig sounds like a great deal. I say buy it and add a 250GB SSD as the boot disk. It'll start fast, and he can use the 500GB for storage/backup. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...digital_blue_ssd_drive-_-20-250-078-_-Product He'll have to reinstall Windows, but it might be for the best to start with a clean slate. I'm sure that there's junk in the registry that he'd rather not have. Better still, install Linux, and use what the pros use. You could even make it a dual boot without too much trouble.
That's plenty powerful for trading but hardly "new". Your biggest potential problem might be age. This mobo could be as much as 10 years old already. See if you can get the Service Tag number so you can check Dell's site for when this machine was first put into service. If the mobo fails, Dell likely could replace it... but expect to pay $350 or more. You might think you could at least use the RAM elsewhere if necessary... but likely no. Newer mobos probably wouldn't run what's in this machine. The video card is waaayyyy overkill for trading. You could sell it on eBay for ~$125-$150(?) and replace it with an Nvidia NVS 310/315 which you can buy for <$20. Bottom Line.... you might get a few years service out of it for a $Few. Not too big a risk to take with that mind set going in.
Also consider building your own rig. At a minimum, learn how to swap out some components: hard drive, power supply, vid card, etc. If something starts acting up, you'll have a better idea of what's wrong. In addition, you can swap out older stuff for newer/faster/better components in as you desire.
"More"? This machine new in its day was likely $5,000. True that you can "save a lot of money buying used"... but at some point things might just be too old. Personally, I like to buy a quality workstation which is about 2-3 years old with the expectation it will last another 3+ years. And that "+" might be significantly more years. (A neighbor bought one of my old Dell Dimension 8300s and is still using it with Windows XP... that machine must be 12 years old.. maybe even 15. I don't recall specifically. The T3500s I use currently are 7 years old... hoping they make it through the life of W7 when I'll have to make a decision.)
OT but CHromebooks are the future. You can get them for less than $200 and they're superfast. I don't see how Apple can compete at $2000 per Mac/$800 iphone/$100 Apple TV with Google Chromebook/Android/Googlecast at basically a couple hundred. No 14 year old will be able to afford a Mac/iphone and certainly not when their school uses Chromebook.
IT's absolutely great deal for that money it seems, but how much monitors it's graphics card really can handle ? I do not understand that thing for now. SSD yes is a must, however I assume it can be bought additionally to addition to that one already.