It depends upon what you'll be doing when you say, "for Trading." (Algos, Crunching Numbers, Backtesting, Optimizations?)
I would normally say, "THIS is the way to buy a trading computer" for most of us... except for the age. These are ~2009-ish vintage.... still fine for running W7 and priced right. For this kind of money you could buy one and try to load W10 and your software. BTW... This HP and the T3500 have mobos with almost identical specs. Both made by Foxconn.
Ok, let me spell it out .... don't be so stingy and buy an anti-virus license. Otherwise the steps to protecting a trading computer are no different to the steps you should be following to protect any other computer. These are well documented. But ultimately, for your average Joe, you need to remember the number one error message you see in relation to typical-user computer problems, namely: "Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair" In other words, don't be dumb: • Don't click on stuff without reading what it says and thinking about it, even if appeared to come from someone you know • Don't run do your day-to-day computing running as Administrator (or user with Admin rights) • Don't let other people use your computer (or, if you must, not as your user) • Don't plug in USB sticks that aren't yours (or are yours but someone else has put stuff on). • Keep *all* your software updated (and that includes obscure stuff like browser plugins and Java etc.). etc. etc. etc. But the problem is your average Joe doesn't have sufficient background in IT to "not be dumb" on a sufficiently consistent basis. And that's why we use all the well-documented safeguards (anti-virus etc) in order to protect the user against their own stupidity. Remember, the computer is binary, its dumb, it executes commands ... the user is the source of all evil. Anyone who starts a request for help saying "I seem to have this virus on the computer" is pretty much always going to have been the person who put it there !!! As the doctor says. Prevention is the best cure ! You are the human, anti-virus software etc. are the injections.... they don't always stop you getting the thing you are innoculated against, but they might make your symptoms less severe ! (Especially as the correct cure to a virus in IT is ALWAYS reformat and start from scratch, because you can't trust that machine anymore)
Good post. AV proggies are mostly trying to catch up with threats, so if you get infection you should probably back up what you need and whipe. I don't run AV typically on anything I have they are just resource hogs! Just practice normal safe computing and you will be fine. Last time I formatted my main rig it was about 3 years of no AV and I was fine, and I only format bc I thought my system was glitching when actually some hardware died. It always cracks me up to see most the little barnacles of the ship worrying about their little world.... real hackers are not going after Joe Shmoe the retail barnacle, they are going after larger fish in the sea!
Indeed. The two best things people can do for themselves are, in order of priority : (1) Learn (and consistently practice) safe computing (2) Learn (and consistently practice) how to do backups **PROPERLY*** Number one because "prevention is better than cure", and number two because if you f*** up you're like a cat with nine lives and can go back and try again !
Funny, I just completed a big bank contract, and they're just converting to w7. Intel announced chipset 2009 but didn't hit market until 2011. They both run w10 without a hitch. I even have sieki tv 4k display on nvidia nvs 450. My old workstation is Dell precision 690 dual xeon quad core 3.09, 2007 vintage, runs w10, dual nvidia nvs 420 graphics card with 8 monitors. Paid about $200, served me well for 5+ years and still running. Factory refurb is better vs home build. My 2 ticks worth ...
Ditto! I did one BIY gaming machine years ago. Didn't have any problems with it, but one was enough for me.