Depends. Pretty much any modern laptop works fine. I'd go with a 17" screen and 2 gigs of RAM myself. Chip doesn't really matter much. If you will be using an external monitor or three (yes, you can do this), then make sure the laptop has a high end video card in it. Many come with the Nvidia Geforce line which will allow you to run big external monitors at high res (1920 X 1200 on many). HP has a model for $850 that has a decent dual core chip (almost all of em are now), 17" screen, 2 gigs RAM, and a Geforce 8400ms which will let you run a 24" external monitor. Or three if you get the Matrox "To Go" thingy that lets you run multiple monitors off a laptop. Just look at Sunday paper ads for Best Buy or Circuit City. They always have at least one of these setups in there. Its prolly what my next laptop will be. In my opinion, anything more is overkill.
Quad core dells can be found for as little as $800 on their refurbished section. Throw in an outlet coupon which appear every month or so and you have a $700 computer that would have cost you $3000 a year and a half ago. Seriously though the any new computer with 4 gig ram and a dual core setup is going to be fine for most trading tasks. The bottlenecks occur mostly from latency issues with internet connection. Pings below 50ms to your trading server is imo more important than top hardware. The only way to really have excellent ping times is with a direct t1 line to your brokers servers. I don't have a t1 but get really good ping time with optimum online in Long Island. If I was a running a high frequency scalping bot I would have the T1 with backups and I would colocate my own servers at nsdq ecn center or my brokers.
I won't be doing anything "over-the-top", meaning that I will essentially be running esignal on 3-4 of my screens, trade ideas on another, and streaming internet on the final one. Currently, I am primarily a stock trader, although I do nibble on the ES and NQ at times, but I don't go beyond the E-mini's. My esignal setup would include roughly 10 charts and 10 quote windows, covering up to roughly 500-1000 symbols at a time (when you include the price alert data which is being monitored full-time). My current Dell 530 has dual Xeon 1.8 GHZ processors and 2 GB of RAM. I'm looking for a good system that will run all of the programs mentioned above smoothly. I don't need anything fancy, but since I am not a tech-oriented person, I am not sure about the best way to go about finding a good quality machine at a reasonable price. Thanks for your help. I appreciate it. Jon
Your current system should run what you mentioned perfectly. If it doesn't, do a virus scan, or maybe wipe the system and start over. I have a 4 yr old dell 4400 and run 4 monitors, crap loads of charts, execution software, and internet all just fine. My only problem with it is a limitation on RAM (1 gig). This is the only reason why I will be purchasing a new PC. I max out my CPU when running several DOM entry screens. As for the previous statement about internet bottlenecks. This is true. However, the only people that really need the difference between a T1 and say a cable feed are pure scalpers doing lots of quick trades. A fraction of a second will not make any difference otherwise. I use a cable feed and am usually filled within a second or so which is fine by me. If you use limit orders for entry, then is really doesn't matter.
Thanks for the reply. My current system does run what I need it to just fine (currently only 1 dual head card with 2 DVI monitors). However, I am currently an analyst/trader for a firm, and I am planning on potentially making the switch back to full-time home based trading within an unspecified period of time. The reason that I am doing a little research right now is because I have been getting the "blue screen of death" with unenthusiastic frequency lately, and my comp has had mutliple problems starting up. So, at least instinctively, it seems that my system is on the brink of a complete shutdown. So, at this point, I'm simply curious as to what other traders would recommend for a reasonable system to begin with? I have heard that the Dell XPS 420 is a good machine to start off with and that I should sell the base ATI card that comes with it (the 128MB ATI Radeon HD 2400 PRO) and replace it with a Nvidia Quadro NVS workstation card. Again, I'm not looking for anything over-the-top, just something that has the ability to run a handful of charting programs with ease, and that can support up to 6 monitors if needed. Thanks again, Jon
yeah, the Quadro NVS was basically designed for trading type purposes. you can get em cheap via Ebay also. I was looking at the NVS280.
Will be following this thread with interest. My current config is higher than this but already having problems. Maybe due to a lot of software running in the background?? Am thinking of getting another PC solely for trading purpose and will have a lot of charts (not that many esignals though)
I have a spare PC which I originally built for my nephew before he decided he wanted something else. It would work great as a trading PC if anyone is interested. It will drive 3 monitors(1 on the built in vga port and 2 on the addon Nvidia7600GT PCI-express card dual dvi) It has an intel 805 dual core cpu, 2 gig corsair memory and 300 gig SATA 2 HD. 550 wattpower supply. The case is an ultra microfly ssf so its more compact then the standard PC box. Its also fully upgradable to any of the newest intel 775 chips including quad core. If anyone is interested, I'm looking for $350 mssage me with any questions.