Most people do this for redundancy and cost. SSD are more expensive, and there is perception they aren't as reliable. So day to day ops are performed on the ssd for speed...and than the drive is backed up on the mechanical drive
I run similar programs as you including TOS on my laptop. Your plan sounds interesting. Which brand / model of machine are you looking at?
"Real" RAM instead of ReadyBoost should help; Maybe try that out before buying/building a new, expensive system. Installing more "real" memory worked for me. I haven't tried it, but from what I do know, I doubt USB memory can compare. I also recommend (free version) CleanMem. http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/cleanmem.html
I'm looking at the HP ENVY 750se. 30% discount right now. From what the build-it-yourself experts say, it's really a great deal for around $1000 and pcpartspicker yields a higher price for a comparable rig. Of course, only HP knows what motherboard is being used. And let's cross our fingers on the 500W power supply. I'm optimistic on 500W being sufficient because 1) The CPU is not the overclocked version that burns white hot in turbo mode 2) The graphics card fan(s) should not even turn on since the graphics card will not engage the 3D engine for the apps I'm using. I sound smart but am only repeating what I've read in the last couple of days. EDIT: This is a trading site, not a hardware site. So why this need for a powerful computer while some traders barely even need a computer? Because it boils down to how one trades. I use a 5 minute chart to enter BIDU or NFLX or AMZN with a huge position and a stop loss of usually 0.25%-1%. If the trade goes well I scale out by end-of-day and keep a swing position on. This is very difficult to do without a high end computer (while monitoring multiple tickers).
Therein lies the problem. I can't add more RAM to my current setup because it's a laptop and because it has a max of 4GB.
Many other reasons as well. Torrenting should never be done using SSDs, same goes for saving a TrueCrypt partition onto a SSD - these reduce SSD life significantly. For large amounts of data where speed is not important, hard-drives are still the best choice.
He probably is limited to 4gb due to "32 bit" he mentioned Vista. I believe his bottle neck isn't the charting or broker platforms, but running all the non-trading related items... CNBC, youtube, etc... i5 - 8/16gb ram - 250gb SSD plain vanilla desktop with two inexpensive video cards should be more than sufficient to run charts, scanner and order entry platform... (the computer doesn't care about position size or % at risk) 4 instruments and scanner isn't very intensive... Personally, I don't see why people spec out "High End Trading Computers" when in fact they trade on General Purpose-Media Rigs... Simpler solution: Pitch Vista, install Win7-64bit / Win10-64bit, 8 gb ram and an SSD, keep it light, "Dedicated to Trading related programs only" and surf porn on another system.... --------------------------------------------- Edit: Fresh Install of Operating system alone may cure 99% of his problems. Suggest running Malware-bytes, (just be sure not to install the trial version at end of install and at every update) it will prevent the nag screens to purchase. Then run official AdwCleaner also. I personally trust How-To Geek The malware alone can throttle down a system... TweakHound another trusted resource as an FYI for research
I concur. A professional trader should have a dedicated trading computer with only the trading front end installed. You can then get another computer for non trading stuff. Not trying to be a jerk, just saying this is what you should do if you have serious money on the line.
I agree @NoBias, although I don't know the ToS platform and how mem hungry it is, typically 8GB of RAM is plenty. It's never a good idea to have 30 tabs open in a browser with 2 video streams running while trading, it will simply be a distraction. I typically use an 8GB desktop but now trading with a laptop with just 4GB of memory, although that's not enough anymore as for some moronic reason IB Trader Workstation uses over 700 megabytes of RAM (probably terrible/lazy coding). Bottom line, as long as you have an SSD as your system drive and 16 GB of RAM, the other specs don't really matter.