Why not just keep life simple and get a several computers, and a high bandwidth internet. I run about six seperate chart software on different computers, several platforms at once, and I watch you tube videos, surf the net, and play video games all at the same time. Just get a nice flat table, and put all your boxes under your desk and your flat top screens and lap tops on the desk. Very comfortable, affordable, and much better than any power computer can do. The most important thing though is the high bandwidth internet. Call around and get bandwidth specifics on the different internet providers. You should get some kind of deal where each computer has it's own IP and acts as a seperate internet access.
Ouch ... dude. They are overpriced. I have done well with Dell PC's They are junk ... but they are super cheap if you know how to buy them. I build all my own now since I want screaming performance and stability. It doesn't take much homework to beef up a dell Quad core. I have seen the higher power Quads minitowers fully loaded refurbished for under $460 shipped numbers of times. (Using a 15% off refurbished coupon) Be sure they can handle several video cards. Cheapo PCI Video cards suffice for trading. Get monitors cheap at Staples using their $25 off $150 Coupon. Get an Ergotron Quad for under $250 Shipped. $460 - PC $150 - 1 Nice PCI-e card or two cheapo PCI (likely onboard graphics too) $250 - Ergotron $500 - 4 22" monitors. Easily done for under $1400 with a lot of power and screen.
1. "Cheaper to buy the parts and assemble yourself"? Not necessarily. And even when true, savings often not worth the effort. Best to look for a quality machine at a good price... example: About a year ago I bought a Dell Precision T3400... Q9300 quad core CPU on X38 Mobo 4GB RAM 250G HDD Nvidia FX570 video card DVD-RW CD-R Card reader Win XP $569 + tax. Prices have come down since then, but I doubt one could buy the parts today for less. And then there's the warranty issue. 3 years, parts and labor.... PLUS technical support as necessary. That's possibly a big deal if you're having hardware trouble... somebody to help you troubleshoot or even troubleshoot for you. Then, they send out a repairman to fix it. Whereas if you assembled it yourself, you have to troubleshoot yourself (sometimes that turns out to be a significant hassle, sometimes not).. and you have to deal with each part and its warranty separately. 2. If you use your computer a lot (as do we traders), you shouldn't buy the cheapest.... budget computers are cheap for a reason.... and even el-cheapo machines often run for years without problems. But if you try to trade with one and it breaks down, you shouldn't be surprised. For casual users, a cheap one will probably suffice and last a long time.
When you buy a Dell you know that all the pieces are going to work together out of the box, e.g. you're not going to have some strange hardware interactions or driver incompatibility issue because they have tested it. If you buy Dell's when they are heavily discounted you can easily get a system cheaper than if you bought the individual parts yourself so they are also a good value, as unretired said. Any PC can have a hardware failure so all the anecdotal stories here are pretty much worthless (mine included but FWIW I've had great luck with Dell for years). The bottom line is that PC hardware today is very reliable so hardware failures are rare unless you are buying the worst possible crap. The most likely thing to fail (by far) is a hard drive which is easily replaceable. If you enjoy building a custom system then by all means do so but otherwise I would recommend that folks buy a cheap Dell, beef up the memory maybe slap in a new hard drive and use it.
Bought a custom machine form this outfit http://kc-computers.com/ Hard Drive lasted 6 months = cracked??? I actually tried posting the first unfavorable review. It was never published on a so-called impartial website. But I did get a call from the guy within 10 minutes of my review..secret viewing I guess= Works well in China, for some reason his phone started working again.... Overall cost me more @ my local PC repair shop to undo this block of cheese.
We've had one of their computers on our trade desk that has run 24 hours a day since 2004. Never an issue. It runs 6 monitors and is as fast as the day we bought it. I don't get paid for endorsements, but we've had great luck at Cobra Trading.
My work wanted me to have a hot new computer, no price limit. I ordered a custom computer from a place online recommended to me by one of my techie friends. 12 GB of designer ram, 4 hard drives in a RAID 10, vid card w/ 2 GB of memory, i7 at the fastest speed, $2500 for just the box no monitors. Top of the line. As I was installing Vista, the second time I tried to boot it the power supply fried. It was the basic 800W power supply and when I called support to find out WTF, they said Oh hell no that's not nearly enough power for all those drives and fans. Great. I was disappointed they would sell me a computer that wouldn't run and not even warn me about the power supply. They would replace the 800W unit, but I said that doesn't make any sense so I ponied up for a 1600W supply. Then I was trying to install Vista but could not get it to work. Crazy random errors, nothing worked. I took it to a local computer repair shop to have them install Vista, their tech said Holy crap what are you using this for, hacking into the NSA? Apparently they don't get many machines this high-end. I am a software developer by profession, I know a little about computers, but not enough. I went out of pocket on the power supply ($100) and the Vista install ($120) because I didn't want my work to know I didn't really know what I was doing. Moral of the story? I'm buying pre-configured, commodity computers from now on. Basically, I'd rather have a Toyota that runs instead of a Ferrari in the shop.
Sounds like most of your problems were due to Vista. You got a 1600W PSU for $100?? The only video card I've heard of with 2G of RAM cost about $7,000. ??