No, I used 16mb dual headcards for years, then I used 32mb dual headcards and now I am still on 64mb. Dual head cards for trading do not need to be anything special IMO. You will never use most of the features. Of course, you might want to check what kind of monitors you are using and make sure the card can support the resolution etc.
just bot a Dell notebook Inspiron 6400 http://www1.us.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/inspn_6400?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd: . Core Duo T2500, 2MB L2 cache, 2GHz, 667MHz FSB, 945GM/PM Express chipset, . 2x1GB DDR2-SDRAM 667MHz, . ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 256MB DDR HyperMem, . 15.4 TFT TrueLife WSXGA 1680x1050, . 80GB SATA HDD (5400 Rpm), . ethernet blue tooth etc etc, less than 3kg, less than $2,200! and seems to hold its own vs AMD dual cores http://www.anandtech.com/printarticle.aspx?i=2648
one for sure as normal, haven't really looked beyond that... i use 4 monitors max, 2 computers for redundancy sake... just rechecked price btw, actually its less than $1,900 if one doesn't go for all the OTT guaranty options... which i did... oh well...
don't waste your money on thse so called trading computers. i've bought at least 15 computers in the past 5 years and i've never had 1 problem with my dells.the dell i sjtu got on my dells are incredible. they had a 40% off coupon. i got a dell e510 thats a intel duo 2.8 ghz processor,1 gig of ram,100 gig hard drive and this is the real kicker a 2007 20 inch ultrasharp 2007 fp all for a total of $763. it has 2 video cards already and i added 2 dual div video cards. the computers fan is so quiet and it's designed cool with an open front to keep it cool. the monitor alone on dells site is $523 or so.it also comes with a 1 year at home warranty
For our profession, I am afraid you are correct. Folks you do not have to buy Dell, just do not spend a lot of money...Memory is cheap these days...there is where the biggest bang for you buck is...then HD speed...upgrade to 10k rpm...get one or two gigs of Ram....use broadband...your covered. You do not need to keep buying the latest and the biggest computer...just upgrade what you have. Do not let the "new Computer" smell get you....Just go out and buy a bigger monitor...or faster hD or more Ram... When I started this thread, I in fact ordered the computer. I cancelled my order when I discovered that 64 bit is not quite ready yet. Then I asked myself a question....WHY? would I pay twelve or thirteen hundred bucks for a computer in my line of work? I am happy with my 350 buck purchase and now I have solved my redundency problems and have some beautiful 19" Samsung monitors. I continue to purchase used computers from one or two computer generations ago, and am able to perform my Trading. Michael B.
YES!!! Yet another champion in the next computer race! I have been touting getting used equipment to fully upgrade for years. So long as you can RAM increase, monitor upgrade, card improve, hard drive expand, you're fine. You got a great price too! Congrats!
BUT!!!!! this thread was Fun... Thanks everybody and good trading to you. Even If I were richer beyond my dreams....would I buy the latest and fastest...and junk my old Plymouth? if they work...then there would be that WHY?....question. Michael B.
i'll tell u in 3-4 weeks when i have it all in place... see how it performs with my bloomberg launchpad , currenex, hotspot, another flash trading platform and a ram-disk resident hotkey app, plus a couple internet windows all at once... but the showroom one running on T2300 was already lightning fast with all the microsoft office, adobe, media stuff i launched concurrently... no access to the net tho'... thanks ES, gnome and everybody else on the thread for all the great inputs, i almost built my own Shuttle config on Athlon x2 but in the end i just went for the easy stuff... no regrets ;-) i only wish we had these discount coupons here in tokyo (best we get is 5%...)