What is a better notebook computer for trading: a Centrino notebook, or a Pentium 4 Hyper-Threading notebook? I've noticed lately that the new powerful Hyper-Threading notebooks are just starting to come out. Thanks in advance for your answers.
Do you think your success as a trader is going to depend upon which one of those notebook computers you use? Of course not. Either one is more than sufficient.
Don't spend too much....but try to get the biggest screen with the highest res. To answer your question...I don't need Centrino as I do not use the batteries for anything other than security during power failures. In California we general just get a flicker of a power failure once a month on average...its enough to need to reset the digital clocks. If you need to travel a lot you can't beat the centrino for battery management. Michael B.
i use a $500 sony vaio 550 mhz with 128 mb ram. works like a charm (i run esignal, ib's tws, and ninjatrader). imho, the most you will ever need is a dell inspiron for $700. more than you will ever need. i would make sure it has a pcmcia slot (or 2 if you are going to use wireless or something else), so you can get a MARGI display-to-go card for multiple monitor support. it makes me laugh when i see people getting 2.8 ghz 512 mb ram computers for trading. what a waste.
If you buy a used notebook .......for $36.00 you can buy a Radio Shack Warranty. You get the convenience to go into your local Radio Shack and drop it off and then pick it up in about a week. I have never been a fan of Radio Shack....but I have personally used their warranty services on my 2 notebooks. If your worried about downtime buy a couple of used ones....do a google search..... Appian Graphics has a mutii-monitor card named the Traveller card...that goes into that PCMCIA slot...so like another poster said try to get one with 2 slots or one slot with built in LAN. Michael B.
The P4's have a throttle down feature built into the chip that slows them down when they get high temperature. This solved the problem that p3's had of locking up. So the point is to make sure you get a notebook with good cooling.....make sure those little fans work....sometimes there are 2 fans. Also another point....us traders leave are computers on 24/7 but I understand that a notebook is best left off when unattended or not in use. This heat issue and their confined space seems to be an issue. With desktops I have always believed that turning them on and off actually shortened their lifespan...the constant heating and cooling of components could not be good.....but overheating is a far greater risk. Michael B.
Thanks for all your answers. From time to time, I do travel, so I guess the Centrino is a good choice. Now another question: Which is better - the Appian Graphics traveller card, or the Margi Display-To-Go mentioned earlier? Thanks again.
I *know* my success as a trader does not depend on which notebok computer I use - that's why I posted this question in the "Hardware" forum... I have a hardware question. I have been doing a lot of travelling lately in the last 6 months and I couldn't take my desktop with me, so my trading is limited to when I'm actually at home. So I'm starting to shop around for a portable, and just wanted to get everyone's opinion on which one to get. Sometimes when you do research on computers, you can get bogged down by so many choices, so I thought I'd pose the question to traders who have been trading with notebook computers. Anyway, thanks for your response.
The new (better?) notebooks now include dual-monitor display capabilities built-in. No need for the add-on adapters. I do have the Margi card and it works well but was a bit hard to set up initially on a win2000pro notebook.