Hello Friends, I am looking to build a new system. But i am looking to explore which Intel Processor to go for.. Surely I7 3960 looks the best.. However, if i will be having 6-8 monitors, will any processor i chose effect ?
Sure 3930/3960 would be very fast. Prices kind of high though. It wouldn't matter how many monitors you need to support. For charting, those are 2-D images (very basic) anyway. What matters is how many math calculations you need to perform. For chartings and indicators, multiplying the number of charts (monitors) usually will demand more calculations. And it also depends on how sophiscated your charts/indicators are. Indicators are not created equal. Some are simple, such as moving averages. Some are complicated, such as Bollinger Band Squeeze. But compared to back-testings and optimizations, chart displays may not be a big deal.
Agree with your points. I was thinking prices are quite high these days for 3930/3960.. would be better of to go with 2700 or 3930 is little less price than 3960.. I feel market being quite of volatile, and sometimes i utilize scalping or day-trading methods, so was thinking to have some more monitors, to be ready when any good setup works out.. what you say ? is it useful ?
I am a visual person. So I like to scan over different monitors. It works for me. Some like it, like me. Some don't. To each his own. I think whichever processor (the named 3) you choose would work fine. With 6 to 8 monitors, should be no problem. The prices of monitors have come down greatly these days. When I started with multiple monitors back in 2000, I used those 19-inch CRTs. Bulky and heavy as hell. Resolution was poor. These days, it's great to have a few compact 21-inch 1920x1080 LED mons.
Unless you are using software that is specifically designed to take advantage of multiple cores then it does not make any difference which one you use. Any off the shelf software will utilize fraction of computing power of the processor probably no more than 15-20% at peak workload. For multiple monitors it is the number of PCIE x 16 slots on the motherboard plus bus/memory speed plus GPU processor and memory that matters most. You have to be concerned with building stable system - no overclocking of CPU or GPU and carefully matched memory with motherboard and CPU.
8-12 months ago, I was able to snag a 3690 system from the Dell refurb area for less than the cost of the processor. Great deals in there if you watch... Different approaches work for different people. I've used a bunch of monitors but have now scaled back to three - all on the same level - and only two of them have charts. The third has news, spreadsheets, etc. The upper level made my neck sore and I couldn't easily watch more than 3 across. All the best, R
If or when you do a 8-monitor configuration, do a little ergonomic design before hand. I have seen pictures of people having 8 monitors all lining straight up against a wall, flat, in a row. This is crazy! You are not looking at the body of a dragon. You don't need to line the monitors squaring facing forward in a straight line. Do a 2x4. Or even 2x3, then with 1x2 on the top row. Something like that. And have a U shape or a shallow-dish shape. If possible minimize the distance from your eyes to any one monitor. Design your trading layout. Don't have one chart splitting over 2 monitors. Too confusing. Use the physical monitor edge as a boundary for grouping your charts or app windows. Put the most important information, something that you constantly focus on in the dead center. Put the less important, FYI, just-a-reminder type of info on the peripheral monitors so that you don't need to turn your head as often. Once you have decided how you want to place your 8 monitors, then buy the fixtures that can support them. The fixtures should be adjustable. Not necessarily expensive.
3770k should be more than enough, trading software uses very little computer power, probably runs on a tablet CPU, unless you do custom blackboxes or algos it's not resource intensive at all. Monitor config wise, I've become accustomed to 4x27" (2560x1440) res monitors in a portrait view fashion. Low end gaming video cards I find are idea to power them, they have enough performance to drive 2d graphics and videos at high res smoothly without all the problems associated with heat from high end gaming cards. 3770k ($300) 32gb ram ($150) 2x nvidia geforce 650/660 cards ($150-200 a piece) samsung 830/840 ssd ($200)