I have a great desktop with 2 screens for trading... I need a better laptop for the times that I am away from my trading station. I see so many options... what is a good processor speed for a laptop? I think 8GB ram will be okay. advice please
You need to specify more info. Are you trading using the broker software, charting tools or custom trading software/databases installed on the PC, or just through a browser? What else will you be using the laptop for?
What does the graphics card have to do with trading? This is CPU based. Get the Thinkpad P52 if you want quality and power without compromise. Or X1 Carbon if you want something lighter.
Personally I would go with a generation 4 i5 or i7 Intel or higher (up to gen 8 now) but it does not matter if even an old laptop with a gen 2 etc. The important thing is a solid state disk. 8gb Ram is generally plenty.
My latest client has given me an i9 six core 32GB macbook pro with 1TB ssd for Java development. I think it retails around $4000 Very impressive, but the that spec comes with a lower battery life, only seem to get about 5 hours due all that memory and processors sucking up the charge. Quad core i5 and 8GB and 128GB SSD is probably fine for trading.
quad core intel cpu at least 2.2ghz BEFORE turbo boost technology(which a lot of intel cpu(s) have. ....with boost its around 3ghz at least At least 6gb RAM, minimum 256gb mech hard drive.... or least 256gb ssd. ** check out Eluktronics 17" laptops on Amazon, very good performance for price. I have one.. eluktronics with a K no need to pay more than $1500 for performance laptop.. forgot one more for just under $1600 ..on ebay and amazon this one has an ssd housing your operating system and mech HD for programs and other things(pics, files, video, etc) Alienware 17 R5 VR Ready 17.3"Gaming Notebook i7-8750H 8GB RAM 256GB SSD 1TB HDD
No point getting a 17" laptop. If you need a large screen, carry a cable and connect to a monitor - there's a monitor everywhere you go nowadays. Harddrives are unnecessary unless you're downloading hundreds of gigabytes daily, you won't need one for trading applications or general usage. Dual core is perfectly fine for trading, no need for a quad core. I use a Ultrabook class dual core (slower), run browser with 20+ tabs, linux VM, trading platform and other things.