don't get a Dell. By the way it is telling that people do not even feel that they need to back above statement with facts. It became trivial. What Comes Around Goes Around - after producing shit for few years people start to shovel it back to Michael Dell.
Buy something smarter (even HP is better), IBM or even something that you spec out yourself - there are zillions ompanies that do it nowadays. try e.g. http://www.pugetsystems.com
My $.02... Except for one HP laptop, I've had nothing but Dell Dimension computers for the last 6 years. They've run about 10 hours per day, 5 days a week + some on weekends... I've had one part fail... a CD unit which was replaced under warranty. Dell's tech support (Indian tech persons, difficult to understand) is a negative. But Dell's hardware is OK at an OK price.
Presuming you're planning to use the computer in a trading environment of "usual requirements", you're going waaayyy overboard. Do you want this machine to be for gaming, also?
My Dell Dimension blew up 3 times in the first 2 years. They practically replaced everything... processor twice, gfx card twice, motherboard 3 times, etc etc. I've been happy with their service though.
for stock traders, with the new requirements from the exchanges, is it really overkill? i run multiple apps for trading on a single machine and personally, it makes a difference. i even upgraded my video card , contrary to the belief of many suggestions, and my performance has improved.
Get the fastest you can afford, and the best quality. What are we discussing here? A $500-$1k difference?!? For some of my backtests nothing is fast enough. Some custom indicators can be comp. heavy also. (If you are using plain old stochastics, you don't need a fast machine.)
It probably is. Hopefully user would know whether his setup requires more than normal horsepower. Gaming video cards are faster than workstation cards, but by how much? Microseconds? And that can improve anyone's trading? (Maybe your performance got better because YOU got better... needing to pay for the hardware upgrade, and all. )
Slipped my mind... I also have an HP desktop... which just last week blew up the power supply... you know, sparks flying and smoke billowing? It's under warranty, so I sent it in for repair... don't know yet if the PSU took other components with it.