I'm glad that you have "5-grand" to spend on a computer... but let me save you some money. Suggest you NOT go to the "$5,000 expense of a custom trading computer". Rather look to buy a Workstation from Dell, HP, or Lenovo. You'll save $$$ and likely get a more reliable machine. (My primary trading rig, a Dell workstation, cost $350... not including monitors, but did include 1x, P620 quad-port video card.) Suggest you (a) take this advice, (b) send me a case of beer with your gratitude, and (3) pocket the rest... or donate it to an animal shelter.
Scataphagos, it will be a Dell Workstation. My last 2 machines have been Dell Workstations and you cant go wrong with them. It will be a high spec machine for Algo trading.
It will come with the Graphics Cards installed. I just like to research what parts I want fitted in the machine.
Good choice. If "hi spec", not sure about any great bargains. Dell is known for higher prices on upscale components. You might check Dell Outlet. If you can find the machine you want you'll likely save $400-500 at least... will full 3-year warranty same as "new". What CPU are you planning? I just checked Dell Outlet... no T5820s available. So I checked the retail screen and found T5820, 16GB RAM, 2x Nvidia T600 (dual port cards). It has an 256GB NVME boot drive. If just for trading, 256GB should be more than enough. Price = $1850. I checked the Passmark on the "entry" CPU.. i9-10900x = ~22,000... checked on the i9-10980XE ~33,000. However the "single thread" performance on both is about the same. So unless you're sure your software will use more than 10 cores, there's no benefit to paying the higher price for the 10980XE. Good Luck!
going to spend 5 thousand dollars on a new machine, Loads of OPTIONS if your going to spend that much...
Do you know of 'prosumer' or workstation class prebuilts that use motherboards with 2 x16 slots, but use Intel Core processors? Asking because for my next PC I want 2 x16 slots for graphics cards to drive my 6 monitors, but it seems you get way more single thread performance for the buck from Core processors than from Xeon processors. For example, here's a Dell T5820 that recently sold for $900 shipped. https://www.ebay.com/itm/224839227626 Its Passmark CPU Mark rating is a little more than double that of a 6th gen Core-i7, but it barely edges out that old Core-i7 on Passmark Single Thread rating. For $900 on a used PC with Intel Core CPU, I'd get much better single thread performance than I'd get in a similar priced Xeon machine.
JFTR...Scat has guided me through the last 3 PC's that I have purchased, and he has been spot on with his recommendations. Most trading rigs do NOT need the latest processors or video cards because virtually all charting programs require much less than what is available now. That is for gaming. Dell Workstations are the best bang for the buck if you use your PC for trading only.
Speaking of the T5820 you can run either core i9 with NECC RAM or Xeon CPU with ECC RAM. You can look through the CPUs offered and see what you like. The T5820 is quite the spiffy machine... rack mounted drives, all modular, all PCIE slots (5) are x16 (not all wired with 16 lanes, however), all USB Type-A slots are 3.1 with 2x, Type-C. This is how entry level workstations SHOULD have been made all along.You'll appreciate how much better it than prior models.
Single threat score of ~ 24-2600 is actually "high middle". Most Core and Xeons operate in that range. If you're looking for much higher than that, look at AMD Ryzen series. Some run as high as 3400+. (My 6-year old workstation has a Passmark of 7000 and single thread 2025.. and it's fine for trading and other uses except gaming.)