It's a 4-head card... it seems like an engineering marvel on paper but if you search the Web it has a number of abysmal revews: people can't get all the 4 monitors working at all and others have to reboot their PCs multiple times in a row until the card recognises all 4 monitors. That's why I recommended using 2x two-head video cards in my earlier post... not to mention it's cheaper too.
If there are known potential troubles, of course the card should be avoided... besides, it has a cooling fan.. potential noise. Better in a trading rig to go with fanless video cards... dualheads generally ... Nvidia Quadro NVS 295 is my preference. (Get 'em cheap on eBay.)
Scataphagos & LeeD, it definitely makes sense to go for 2 NVS295 graphics cards rather than 1 quad card.
I will look at the 10K RPM drives. I did think about getting a PC built , but I got to admit I do like Dells. I have never had any problems with any of my Dell equipment. If I get a PC built for me I just cant see it being as reliable as a dell. There support is good as well if it is needed.
Just go with an XPS desktop with i7/ 12gig/ and dual cards (look for SLI). When you get it, Swap the HDD with 10K raptor. Install your win7 and you are G2G. If you keep the 7200 RPM hDD.Make sure you dont wipe out teh recovery partition (just in case your need it later for a easy install. I have had xps 630 for over 3 yrs now ..no Problemo. PS> XPS has dedicated support unlike other home PC support and will be in your budget.
So much of what is being advised here is PURE freaking OVERKILL! I would suggest that your internet connection and how far away your data-feed quote/execution servers are located from your trading platform's location is FAR MORE IMPORTANT than a solid state HD, or 10K Hard Drives, or 3.0 SATA-III with 6Gbs bandwidth! Do a trace-route in your DOS prompt and see how much latency occurs to get back to your quote server(s). As for the NVS-295 graphics card, I have two of those that support 4 monitors in my Dell Precision T3400. Have Windows XP Pro with 4 Gigs of RAM and a 7200 RPM HD. Trading platforms just aren't I/O read/write intensive. Works fine!
Its sure overkill for TODAY, but he wants a future proof. WHo knows wht platforms will we need to use and what technology.
If you're running only 1 video card, XPS is OK... has 1 x16 slot. If you run 2 video cards. T3500 > XPS... has 2 x16/16, slots. XPS is more of a gamer/recreation platform. And with only 1, x16 slot, it's not that great of a gamer platform either. I probably would not buy any XPS model, regardless.... either T3500 specifically for trading or X58/P67 from some vendor other than Dell or self-built. Good as they are, T3500 could use a refresh. They were early in the X58 mobo cycle so don't have SATA3 nor USB 3.0 (though they can be added via a PCIEx4 card). Dell has Precision T3600/5600/7600 in the works to replace the current line. The T1600 is already here to replace T1500, but haven't heard when the rest will be available. The new ones should have the new features.... and hopefully 3, x16 slots.
No such thing as a "future proof" PC. Buy what you need to do the job and expect to replace it in a few years. If your requirements change and demand greater processing power, then buy what you need to do that job. One that that a PC isn't - an investment for life.