I'm building another PC, mainly for charting and news - but also to run TWS as a backup broker. Here's what I'm currently planning to buy: ------------------ ANTEC NSK4000 Mini Tower Case, 1x120mm fan ASUS Maximus Formula, X38, Socket-775, DDR2, ATX, 2xGbLAN, Firew, 2xPCI-Ex(2.0)x16 INTEL Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHz FSB1333 6Mb ZALMAN CNPS9500AT Ultra Quiet CPU Cooler 2 CRUCIAL DDR2 BallistiX PC8500 2048MB CL5,Kit w/2 BallistiX 128Megx64 (total of 4 GB) 2 PNY Quadro NVS 440, 256MB DDR, PCI-Express 1x WESTERN DIGITAL Digital Caviar GP 1TB SATA2 16MB 7200RPM Seasonic M12 600W, 120mm fan, 2xPCI-E NOCTUA NF-S12-800, 120mm fan, 800RPM, 8 dB(A) NEXUS Nexus 80mm Real Silent Vifte, Sort, 17,6 dB(A), 20,2 CFM, 1500 RPM ------------ I want it to be powerful yet quiet. Will be running six screens. XP Pro. TWS, Investor /RT, QuoteCenter and another app for DJ news. Not used for main trading. I might overclock memory and the cpu, but I don't think I'll be needing it tbh. Replacing the Antec fan. - Comments on the RAM? - Motherboard too much or appropriate? - I don't quite see the point of the PCIe 16x vs the 1x version of the graphics cards. Am I right about this? - The Antec tower, any comments on that? I don't want to go bigger, although that would be favourable for temperature etc. I only build a pc or two every other year or so, so each time there's a whole new set of hardware to learn about and new techs to check out.
1. X38 mobo is plenty "high end". 2. Are you really going to use 4G of RAM? 2G should be plenty. 3. If you're not using the PCI slots for other, you could save some dough by using 2, 285x16 + 1 280 PCI cards instead of 2, 440s. Or, get a mobo with 3, PCIEx16 slots and use 3, 285x16s. In any event, you'll have plenty of overkill for trading.
RAM is so ridiculously cheap now, so it's not something I've skimped on. It might not be needed at all times, but I'm not that experienced with Investor RT to know if it could use it with a large database and about 30 charts open at the same time. I opted for NVS 440 mainly for the flexibility of using more screens if I wanted to at a later stage.
You might want to check Task Manager for RAM usage. I always have about 50 real-time charts open plus all the other apps one has in a trading rig, and my 2G system still has "1.6G physical RAM available" at full load. Maybe buy 2G RAM initially and see what's used.. then add more if wanted? Or not... like you say, RAM is cheap.
After a bit more surfing around I see that a 1333 FSB would be better off with PC3-10600 memory, which is actually a bit more expensive (but also very fast, providing 21 GB/s).