Ok thanks. The 3930 just seemed like a decent value relative to more expensive chips. Which video cards would you recommend? If those are overkill and will run too hot/loud then I would like to go with something more appropriate. -Which brand/model of cards should I look at? -How much ram is appropriate? -Do I need two or three?
1. I don't know for sure those cards will run hot and noisy. They certainly would in high res, fast action gaming. But for trading, they are going to run at near idle... maybe not much noise/heat ?? 2. The big player in multi-monitor, multi-video card layouts is the Nvidia NVS line. NVS 290/295/300/450 don't draw much power and are passively cooled (no fan) Newer models are NVS 310, 420, 510. They have fans but as Nvidia designed them to run in trading/financial environment, likely they are quiet. The number of video cards you need is determined by whether they are dual or quad ports and how many monitors you intend to run. RAM... well, it's cheap right now. 8GB, 16GB? You might not need even that much. If you can run all of your intended apps on a W7 computer you currently have, you can check the Task Manager to see how much RAM is being used and go from there. You also want to check to see what % of your CPU is being used.... especially if you're running tic charts and/or custom formulas. If your software is like most for traders, applications get loaded into RAM and run from there... in those cases the CPU sits 99% idle most of the time... you don't need a powerful CPU just to boot/shutdown, load/exit apps.
I have a 3930K on P9X79 w/ 64Gb RAM ... I am certainly happy with it. Choose carefully your CPU cooling solution, I went for a Noctua NH-D14 SE2011 and I love it ... completely silent, great cooling ... but it weights a lot, not a problem if you build your rig yourself, otherwise it is a problem for shipping.
Yeah I am willing to pay a (reasonable) premium for a turn-key rig. But want something "stupid fast, and very quiet." How does that comp compare to your Mac Pro?
those fanless cards are at a premium in my book.. not worth it.. to me at least.. you get like less then half of what you get in a fanned card .. as far as processors/memory/etc/..
The fanless are more than adequate for trading.. and you can pick them up cheap on eBay... but the actively cooled ones do have more horsepower.
I doubt there are any cooling or noise advantage for any retail water-cooling solution vs the Noctua. The drawback IMO is ... water. The big advantage vs. the Noctua is the light weight on the motherboard. I have a standard Sonata-IV case with its factory fan set on medium speed, and it is noiseless & keeps CPU temps under 65C at all times even during extremely long optimizations (48h+ on all 12 cores).