I'd like to keep everything under a grand if possible (not including monitors). I just want to be able to scalp with 4 monitors. This is pretty much going to be a work computer. I don't care if it takes a few minutes to setup in the morning. I know it won't take long to open my trading software since it doesn't on my HP Touchsmart tx2 right now. Problem with this thing is 2 monitors give it trouble as it uses too much memory and it easily overheats.
Do whatever makes you happy, I am simply trying to give you solid advice. It makes absolutely no sense to get a top-end Core i7 and not use an SSD. In that eBay listing, the MB is kinda junky, btw, as another poster pointed out. You could build such a system yourself with better components, and have enough to budget in an SSD. Hardest part IMO for a newbie is putting on just enough AS5 onto the CPU, and doing so cleanly. Add some tiewraps and a bit of TLC and you're golden. If you favor buy over build, maybe go with a bare tower from Costco and buy the SSD and Video card from Newegg/Amazon. Should keep you under $1,000 (except the Operating System issue.. gotta stick with Windows 7 IMO, that is one advantage of that overpriced eBay listing). edit: Also, IMO you always want to re-install the OS from the raw disk, even if you buy from some custom vendor on eBay -- so demand a copy of the OS.
Thanks for the help. I don't think I need an i7 processor, but I'm not sure what I do need. I'm willing to build a computer, but I'm not a computer expert. From my understanding an i7 isn't a big upgrade from the i5, but the i5 is a big upgrade from the i3, because it has a quad processor. I'm not sure how this will effect the performance for how I'll use it though.
lol take it for a guy who's scalped as many as 100 million shares in a yr all this mombo jumbo won't make you a dime That system is fine to scalp as long as you have fast net running at 20-30 I used to have computers build in the 90's and toss them out if i got a virus. I used to spend 5-10k yearly new systems. My system is 4 yrs old and runs great and is still fast as lightning.
the point is for that money.. with a little reading of directions.. you could construct a system on new egg.. buy some thermal paste.. and very easily build a computer of much higher quality... here is a system almost to the T to what i'm running.. Shopping Cart Qty. Product Description Savings Total Price 1 SAMSUNG DVD Burner SATA Model SH-224BB - OEM Item #: N82E16827151256 Return Policy: Standard Return Policy $17.99 1 Thermaltake Chaser MK-I (VN300M1W2N) Black SECC ATX Full Tower Computer Case Item #: N82E16811133191 Return Policy: Standard Return Policy -$5.00 Instant $20.00 Mail-in Rebate Card $159.99 $154.99 1 Thermaltake SMART Series SP-550PCBUS 550W ATX 12V 2.3 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power ... Item #: N82E16817153172 Return Policy: Standard Return Policy -$10.00 Instant $79.99 $69.99 1 Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver Thermal Compound AS5-3.5G - OEM Item #: N82E16835100007 Return Policy: Consumable Item Refund Only Return Policy -$4.00 Instant $11.99 $7.99 1 ASUS P8Z77-V LX LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard Item #: N82E16813131824 Return Policy: Standard Return Policy $10.00 Mail-in Rebate Card $129.99 1 Intel 520 Series Cherryville SSDSC2CW180A3K5 2.5" 180GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) Item #: N82E16820167115 Return Policy: Limited Replacement Only Return Policy -$20.00 Instant $209.99 $189.99 1 Intel Core i7-3770K Ivy Bridge 3.5GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 BX80637I73770K Item #: N82E16819116501 Return Policy: CPU Replacement Only Return Policy CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ16GX3M2A1600C10 Item #: N82E16820233246 Return Policy: Memory Standard Return Policy -$18.00 Combo $449.98 $431.98 Subtotal: $1,002.92 Shipping: $0.00 No Payments + No Interest if paid in full in up to 12 Months. Minimum purchase required. Subject to credit approval. See Terms Grand Total:* $1,002.92
I feel sorry for you, all the back and forth with people who are offering their opinions without bothering to understand your drivers... so here is what I will tell you... figure out what apps you will use first, then how many of them you want to run at the same time... and how you will use those applications... that will tell you how many threads you need for processing, and it will also tell you how much memory you need... or you can go with the basic thing... 4 Threads and 1GB per thread... that is the simplest way... all else on this whole thread is just noise... then you need to think about your trading timeframe, what level of reliability do you need... if you are intraday, and can not afford downtime, then go for best quality possible... if you are swing, then who cares... go for best value... also, determine if you are best suited with one or two computers... one for backtesting where you can have lots of threads and another one for actual trading... stay away from custom stuff and custom vendors unless they are "big" and have been around... if things crap out in 3 years or a part fails or whatever, you want them to be around... lastly, your time is better spent on trading than putting a computer together... again, what is your time worth... all the "research" and "integration" work will take time, do you want to waste that much time? I rather would spend that time playing with my kids or out on the golf course or whatever suits your fancy... oh, and if you are intraday, please stay away from Wi-Fi... you have enough latency as it is, why add more by choice... always pick network cable over wifi... always pick wired over wireless (now I mean keyboards and mouse)... anyhow, any of the systems below will more than meet your requirements.. but again, you should determine your needs, write a pro/cons list and go from there.. If I was you I would get this one... the video card alone is $400.. HP z400 W7P-64 X W3680 6X 3.33GHz 500GB SATA 6GB DDR3 1333 DVDRW Quadro NVS 450 Rmkt WS $765 and you will get 12 threads, 6GB of RAM... you can add a 256GB SSD (Samsung) for under $200 and add another 6GB for like $50... overall systems, and see the spreadsheet for them below... HP 8300 W7P-64 i5 3570K 3.4GHz 500GB 4GB(2x2GB) DDR3 1600 DVDRW Rmkt SFF PC $629 HP 8300 W7P-64 i7 3770 3.4GHz 500GB SATA 4GB(1x4GB) DDR3 1600 DVDRW Parallel Rmkt CMT PC $679 HP z220 W7P-64 i5 3570 3.4GHz 1TB SATA 4GB DVD NVIDIA NVS 310 Rmkt CMT WS $679 HP z400 W7P-64 X W3680 6X 3.33GHz 500GB SATA 6GB DDR3 1333 DVDRW Quadro NVS 450 Rmkt WS $765 HP z420 W7P-64 X E5-1620 QC 3.6GHz 500GB SATA 6GB DVD Graphics-Less Rmkt WS $783 HP 8300 W7P-64 i7 3770 3.4GHz 2-1TB SATA 4GB DVD AMD HD 7450 Rmkt CMT PC $849 HP 8300 W7P-64 i5 3470 3.2GHz 256GB SSD 8GB DVDRW Intel HD Rmkt SFF PC $1,029 HP z420 W7P-64 X E5-1650 6X 3.2GHz 1TB SATA 2GB No-Optical Quadro 600 Rmkt WS $1,103 HP z420 W7P-64 X E5-1650 6X 3.2GHz 500GB ATA 8GB(4x2GB) DDR3 1600 ECC DVDRW Graphics-Less Rmkt WS $1,119 HP z420 W7P-64 X E5-1650 6X 3.2GHz 1TB SATA 4GB No-Optical Quadro 600 Rmkt WS $1,119
IMHO: Since the OP wants to scalp with four monitors, a low end gaming card such as the GeForce GTX 650 PCI Express card ( or something cheaper ) may be needed.
I'm not opposed to AMD processors by the way. Just throwing that out there. I see a lot of cheap AMD computers on the net like this one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-AMD-Ath...1028600901?pt=Desktop_PCs&hash=item19d9d20045 As long as I can get 4 monitors working on it and run my trading software with no problem I don't care. Right now I use a laptop with an AMD Turion(tm) X2 Dual-Core Mobile RM-75 2.20 GHz processor. I have 4.00 GB of RAM. The internet speed works fine. Sometimes my laptop overheats though and it can't handle more than 1 monitor. I don't know if this is a RAM issue or a graphics card issue or what. I have an ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics card.