After constant battles with my better half, we have decided to purchase a special computer solely dedicated to trading. My question is : What components should it have in order for it to run super smoothly??? ) I was thinking of the following: 1. Good old pentium 4 - cheap and fast enough. 2. 2 to 4 gig of RAM - to be on the safe side. 3. 200 gig hard drive - Barracuda with 5 year warranty 4. A video card that will allow 2 to 4 monitor hook up. 5. cd/dvd drive - something from pioneer 6. USB and Firewire connections - just in case 7. Windows XP pro - original Price = less than $1000 Any comments, suggestions, remarks and ideas are eagerly anticipated.
Having built dozens of machines for myself, co-workers, and friends, here are my recommendations below: >1. Good old pentium 4 - cheap and fast enough. Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Conroe 1.86GHz LGA 775 Processor $180 at Newegg Very nice chip. Fast. Fast. Fast. You will also need a motherboard. ABIT/ASUS can't go wrong. >2. 2 to 4 gig of RAM - to be on the safe side. 2 GB is all that is needed. XP doesn't support 4 GB fully. Even with 4 installed, your machine may only show 3 to 3.5 depending on BIOS. >3. 200 gig hard drive - Barracuda with 5 year warranty Seagate/Maxtor have been having BIOS issues with Nvidia chipsets. Depends on motherboard being used. I switched to Western Digital and all is well. Get Serial ATA 3.0Gb/s drive. Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD3200KS 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive I have many in various machines. I am currently using the 500GB but 320 is nice size. Newegg has special at $89.99. >4. A video card that will allow 2 to 4 monitor hook up. I run 2 Nvidia cards in SLI for a total of 4 monitors (DVI). But matrox is a very good choice in this area. >5. cd/dvd drive - something from pioneer Anything will do here. $30 tops. >6. USB and Firewire connections - just in case On motherboard. Depending on case, you should have connections available on both front and back. >7. Windows XP pro - original Don't forget power supply, keyboard/mouse (if applicable).
I have this one 3 years and still going Optiplex GX260 P4 2.6GHZ 1024MB 40.0GB Minitower CDRW USB Ports Network Adapter Sound Windows XP Professional loaded. ps. about $300 ebay
saxon22, you did not define what kind of traidng you are doing. If you are just running a few simple charts, you can get by on less. If you are doing heavy back-testing, charts with tons of indicators, etc. you will need more horsepower.
More than what I have outlined?????? I am sure I could get a 11 grand machine from Alienware or Voodoo but I think that what I have listed in my post would pretty much take care of 99% of trading/charting needs even with back-testing and tons of indicators. I am thinking of running e signal, and Ninja Trader, through IB going for ES primarily and keeping my eyes on ER2. Nothing fancy when it comes to indicators: CCI, MACD, Bollinger, and maybe 2 or 3 others.
Good old Dell. I had one couple years ago and it was the only computer that had never given me any headaches. It was as if the thing was built by Toyota. I also like the price you quoted. This is surely an attractive amount.
Thank you for providing a detailed list of the stuff I will need. I was not aware that the new core 2 duos are so cheap. Also the motherboard info. was interesting. I guess I will stick with ASUS. Many people say good things about this particular company. As for the hard drive, would it be advisable to get a smaller HD but with higher RPM?? Isn't there a video card that would handle 4 monitors?
Do you guys think it is possible/reasonable to use a laptop as a trading computer of the type discussed here? Are approximately the same specs available on laptop? How do you get more than 2 monitors hooked up?
1. The next speed up is 10,000 RPM, but heat and noise issues start becoming a consideration. A faster hard drive is not necessary for trading. 2. Quad video cards... yes, both Nvidia and Matrox make them. However if you have the slots available, you may find 2, dualhead cards better.... lower cost, too.