by Daniel S. Evans "DIY PC builders, rejoice! If you always need to have the most cutting-edge system - cost be damned - then the news of Intel's latest chip probably has you reaching for your credit card. The new Intel Core i7-980X Extreme Edition CPU is a six-core chip that promises crazy-fast performance (and a hefty $1,000 price tag), the kind that will have you seriously considering scrapping the Core i7-975 system that you just built. We wanted to put together a system worthy of such power. This system is equally appealing to a casual user who's willing to invest in building a state of the art PC that will last you at least 5 to 7 years and possibly longer." more http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2361201,00.asp in Comments: cheungster March 11, 2010 5:29am "Didn't see a total anywhere on the page, but i came up with $3826 for everything listed"
If you're a guy over 40 you seriously have to reconsider buying anything that depreciates faster than your balls can recharge after getting laid...
I built a quad core2 Extreme system the first day the processor was available on the market. Just the CPU cost $1600+tax+shipping. I put it on a DDR3 board (paid another $2k for my ram); have 4 pciex16 slots and three more pci slots (7 total), 1kw power, two separate raid arrays, 8800ultra gpu, etc. Spent $4k not including any monitors. While I could build it for half that today (or less) I don't regret spending the money. It's a dedicated trading box and it never misses a heartbeat even during the heaviest volatilities of the crash. Runs Prime95 continuous nice and cool and I bench 780fps on gpu stress test. Under normal trading the total CPU useage is 1%. It's uncommon to ever see it hit 2% during the daytime; only at startup will it use more CPU (around 20% when I open my platform). Spend the money and do it. You won't regret it unless it costs you a relationship. And even if it does, you still may not regret it!
then what's the point to have such powerful machine? i would understand, if you have pretty complex calculations for back testing(for example). it certainly will save you some of your precious time,but if it's runs @ 2% all day long...then i (personally)would buy something 2-3 times less powerful. probably for same reason as a bold guy @ your next traffic light..the guy with gotee sitting in corvette convertible..it's hot,humid,the head is red,but hey..i got 600hp..i never use them,but i have them.
My last rig ran at 90% most of the time during the day, PC abuse. The new one , quad , low teens. more than enough headroom. At 2% I'd think about leasing out the rest to an hft firm.
Because when there's a market crash or unexpected event (like 9/11) I know everything on my end is the best I can do to protect my interests. When you consider the money on the table, spending money on hardware is a valid investment. I've now had it for 2+ years and I expect it will last me at least a few more if not longer. Annualize that and it's very much worthwhile to me. I was laughed at in Dec07 when I was going short because "the banks are going to crash" and that is fine. Those who were selling puts on solar stock pullbacks got wiped out while I sat fat dumb and happy. There are those who mock me saying I wasted money building this box and that's fine too. But when an event happens and suddenly volume is 50x normal or more, my 20 charts with 4 studies each (80 data feeds) sing like a sewing machine while lesser systems can't handle it. And the 80 feeds does not even include the trading platform which is another 6 windows. I like to see the big picture on major currencies, metals, markets, etc. I don't trade stocks; just futures. I know many independent traders split up their charting and trading onto different systems and that's something I have not done. Maybe I will one day and maybe not. This works great for me now and I'm not one to fix something that is not broke. Kind of like having a fire extinguisher around. You hope you never need it and there's a mess if you do, but you survive and you protect your interests and at the end of the day you're glad you did. In marlin fishing we say "I'd rather be onshore wishing I was offshore then be offshore wishing I was onshore."