Hello, I am interested in using a mini desktop with size similar to Dell Alien. I bought a Lenovo Tiny M92 and it is really really slow. I can't even use it for regular web search, it takes 5 seconds to respond to my mouse click. I think I wont risk trying another lenovo. I am now considering Dell Micro OptiPlex. Does anyone have experience using it for trading? http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/optiplex-3020m-desktop/pd?ref=PD_OC
Which CPU did you have in the Lenovo? DESCRIPTION THINKCENTRE M92P TINY DESKTOP Processor 3rd generation Intel® Core™ i5-3470T Processor 2nd generation Intel® Core™ i3-2120T Processor Intel® Pentium™ G630T/G530T Intel® Celeron™ G460 There's a big difference between the i5 and the Celeron. http://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp[]=682&cmp[]=824 And which CPU would you go for with the Dell? Looks like there's a choice of 10 configurations. Celeron G460 (Lenovo) vs Celeron G1840T (Dell 1/10) vs i5-4590T (Dell 10/10) http://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp[]=682&cmp[]=2512&cmp[]=2276
I have an Intel NUC. Great for trading. You can get a third party case to go fanless. http://www.intel.co.uk/content/www/uk/en/nuc/overview.html
Built one myself using the Cooler Master 110. It's definitely bigger but then again it's a fully capable desktop with a dual fan, normal size GPU and can fit 2 drives (HDD or SSD). The quality and performance are ridiculously good for the price.
Check your motherboard. You might be able to just drop in a new CPU. Just make sure it is the right generation.
Run up to three instances of IB tws mosaic on an 8gb i5 Intel Nuc with 128gb msata ssd. Going to upgrade to the skylake model by the end of the year to run a 4k monitor though the haswell version will do this as well.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9556/intel-launches-new-socketed-minipc-motherboards? Another option slightly bigger than a NUC.