So I'm in the market for a new PC since the one I have is 5-6 years old at this point and for whatever reason my eSignal has been lagging a bit during fast moving markets (like around the open for instance), but I'm not super tech savvy or familiar with all the related component part lingo out there so I thought I'd ask for help here. I currently have 7 monitors running - 4x NVS 420 2x FX 570 + 1 onboard My PC is an Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4790 CPU @ 3.60GHz 3.60 GHz with 16GB of RAM I don't do gaming or use the PC for anything beyond trading (running eSignal mainly), so I don't need anything super fancy per se, however I would like it to be able to handle fast/volatile moving markets with ease (no lag in eSignal so what when I click a new symbol on a watchlist it immediately pulls up all of the information on the linked charts without any issues or delay). What type of processor/memory/video cards/RAM should I be looking for etc? Is there any pre-built system that I should consider? Would the NVS 510 be a good card to upgrade my 420s from or no? With regard to pre-builts would something like this do the trick or would it be overkill? https://outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnlin...pPI+7I548Z2jgKMTNprgMWuZKGSNI1+H2n1GJSwp7ftM= Any suggestions here? There's so much stuff out there that it's a bit overwhelming to sort through if you don't have much experience with what's good/bad/necessary/unnecessary/what to avoid etc.. Thanks for your time, jm
Consider upgrading the motherboard, CPU, and memory. You can reuse your old graphics card if you want. 2D charting software is not that demanding and you don't need a super-powerful GPU. If you don't want to do that, just buy a pre-built computer. Any recent Intel Core i7 (go with the 12th Gen), 32 or 64 GB of memory should be plenty, Micron/Crucial SSD or reuse your current hard drive if it is a decent SSD and you should be good to go. You don't need a Xeon. Only thing it would really offer in your case is the ability to use ECC memory, but you don't really need that.
Either new or refurbished by dell like this setup depends on warranty on it i have a dell and at 11 months the mother board went wacky , they came in two days and replaced mother board and reinstall WINDOWS, and It runs fine,, I upgraded the ram from 8 to 32 for like $95.00 mine is a I-10700 - Below is a link for a Dell refurbished model >just use your video card you have now will run fine and upgrade the ram from CRUCIAL Good prices > Specs on the dell >> Tech Specs $705.00 Intel Core 11th Generation i7-11700 Processor (8 Core, Up to 4.90GHz, 16MB Cache, 65W) Windows 11 Home 256GB PCIe M.2 NVMe Class 35 Solid State Drive 8GB (1X8GB) Up to 3200MHz DDR4 UDIMM Non-ECC Intel HD Graphics Dell Outlet XPS 8940 https://outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnlin...OiJ00m3Rv4g+iY/kazI5kppLNkMm54UpKQxWlwdWvC7Y=
How are you connecting all those video cards to the motherboard? On newer systems, you'll find there are fewer PCIe x16 slots, usually only 1 on a prebuilt. Maybe you'll get a second x16 slot that is wired as x4 (good enough for a video card running monitors for trading). Fortunately, you won't need as many video cards. Yes, the NVS 510 is a good option. I have 2 of those at the recommendation of @Scataphagos and am running 6 monitors on those. Plan to use video cards from the same manufacturer and plan on not using the onboard graphics - either of those can lead to various stability issues; I think the latter isn't even an option in Intel systems of recent years as running two video cards usually disables the onboard graphics in the BIOS automatically. If you go with NVS 510 or similar multi-monitor cards, hopefully your monitors have DP inputs, assuming you want to stick with your existing monitors.
Things that would be good: 12 gen i5 for more cores, but plenty of speed. (12 gen is major upgrade from 7-11 gen) A two smaller, but newer SSD drives for RAID "mirror" (Backups). A Killer Network card for automatic roll over from wired LAN to Cell wireless Consolidate your monitors from 6 to 3 or 4, using 3 would be supported by most cards. A laptop and not a desktop for backup power supply and ability to secure it, hide it. Best of luck.
I just assembled a new PC this week that I'm happy with so here's a breakdown of the parts and a few thoughts. First, regarding pre-built, that's a fine idea and you can get decent value from the reputable OEMs, however you will be limited to the specific hardware they offer. This is okay in the general case but you can do better (cheaper, faster, higher quality, longer lasting components) building it yourself. There's also the benefit of reusing some of what you already have making the build even cheaper. My previous computer had an Intel 8700k processor, 64 GB of RAM and a GTX 980ti graphics card from a few years ago and the whole rig was starting to show its age. I program, day, and swing trade stocks, futures, options, and crypto with a few different brokers; I also built and run a crypto trading bot in the background that constantly scans about 20,000 pairs on a dozen exchanges and keeps the charts in a RAM database (Redis). Over time, after adding more features to my bot, more exchanges, etc., the system load was getting so high my box would lock up at times for minutes, especially when crypto was going nuts. The paltry 64 GB of RAM was getting a bit tight too. I say all that to give you an idea of what I needed, your needs may be less or more. I've been planning on upgrading for probably the last 6 months but finally a week ago I decided to make a move and really go all out with the fastest reasonably priced set of components I could get my hands on. One trip to Microcenter in Marietta, GA later and here's what I ended up with: CPU: Intel i9 12900k Price: $549.99 Link: https://www.microcenter.com/product...ga-1700-boxed-processor-heatsink-not-included I originally wanted to go AMD, either the 5950x or Threadripper workstation CPU but the 12900k came out in the meantime and matches the 5950x in multi-threaded speed while being about 25% faster in single core. See here: https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i9-12900K-vs-AMD-Ryzen-9-5950X/4118vs4086 The problem with getting a Threadripper is it's based on AMD's last gen Zen2 architecture and while at top spec it significantly beats the 12900k on multicore, it is woefully underpowered in single core speed (about the same as my 8700k). AMD has an update coming soon called 3D V-Cache but it's only been demonstrated on one of their mid-tier CPUs and while it may end up competitive with the 12900k in single core speed, it's unlikely to match it in multi-core on the CPU that was demonstrated so it's not worth waiting on. Also Threadripper will eventually move to Zen3 but meanwhile AMD is prepping Zen4 and blah blah blah so in the end I just went with the 12900k since it's here now and it's fast. Motherboard: MSI Z690 MAG Tomahawk WiFi DDR4 Intel LGA 1700 ATX Motherboard Price: $279.99 Link: https://www.microcenter.com/product...hawk-wifi-ddr4-intel-lga-1700-atx-motherboard More often than not when I see a reviewer testing a graphics card, a CPU, or whatnot, this is the motherboard the build is based on. It is stable, has a great BIOS for easy overclocking, is reasonably priced, and has 3 large PCI Express slots on it so you won't have a problem using the 2 graphics cards you already have. A very important detail of this board is it is DDR4, not DDR5 compatible. When Intel released their latest CPUs, part of the fanfare was RAM moving to the latest DDR5 interface. Progress is nice but in this case, DDR5 costs about twice as much as DDR4 and if you need a lot of it, that adds up quickly. The performance difference? About 5%-7% in the benchmarks I've seen. Note that benchmarks are designed to stress the component in question as directly as possible while in general use cases the difference a user notices will be negligible. Obviously I went with DDR4 and saved several hundred dollars. In a few years when I upgrade again I may feel differently. Also this board has 4 Nvme SSD slots so if you want to set up a RAID array you can go wild. And wifi. The board has built-in wifi. Not that you'd ever use that for trading but it's there. RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws V 64GB (2 x 32GB) DDR4-3600 PC4-28800 CL18 Dual Channel Price: $279.99 (I bought two packs so total price for me: $559.98 Link: https://www.microcenter.com/product...el-desktop-memory-kit-f4-3600c18d-64gvk-black The motherboard I bought has 4 memory slots on it and I wanted 128GB of RAM. Each package of RAM I got has 2 32GB modules so I bought 2 packs for a total of 4 32GB sticks. If you don't need that much RAM, you can get one pack for a total of 64GB. I would consider that the minimum if you want to keep the computer for a few years, also go ahead and get 32GB sticks since if you ever want to upgrade to 128GB you will need that in each of the four slots. Should you, e.g., buy 16GB sticks or lower, you will have to replace them if you want to max the computer out at a later date. DDR4 RAM has 3 numbers that really matter: size, speed, and latency. The ones here are not the slowest or the absolute fastest but they do split the difference well for the price. You could go faster for considerably more bucks but it's unlikely you will notice the difference. I paid $600 for the DDR4 but had I opted instead for 128GB of DDR5 it would have cost around $1100. For RAM. $1100. Wew lads. CPU Cooler: Lian Li Galahad 360mm RGB Water Cooling Kit Price: $159.99 Link: https://www.microcenter.com/product/638087/lian-li-galahad-360mm-rgb-water-cooling-kit-black I prize stability above most everything else in my trading computer and I use my system hard so I don't screw around when it comes to keeping CPU temps under control. The 12900k is a power hungry processor and you could probably get away with a very high powered fan/heatsink like the legendary Noctua DH15 but if you're willing to go further, consider water cooling. It may sound a bit much but it's not that big a deal. And if you go water then get a triple fan setup. Doesn't cost much more than a dual fan but the cooling capacity is 50% greater. Whatever you do, avoid the cheap single 120mm setups. That is a waste of money. The Lian Li Galahad reviews very well and is one of the lowest price triple fan setups on the market. I have it running on the system next to me. It's silent and it gets the job done well. Note that you're gonna need a special bracket so it'll fit on the 12900k processor. It's not included but only costs $4.99 extra. Link here: https://www.microcenter.com/product/644357/lian-li-galahad-lga-1700-bracket Also the cooler may have "RGB" in the name but you can turn it all off. My system is pitch black with no lights on anywhere. Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 850 GA 850 Watt Price: $139.99 Link: https://www.microcenter.com/product...t-80-plus-gold-atx-fully-modular-power-supply Again, stability is key here. You want a reputable part that can supply your system with plenty of power. You have 2 older graphics cards so 850 watts will be plenty for you. This power supply has 4.7/5 stars with 165 ratings on Microcenter's website. I didn't dig much more deeply into it than that. So far it works well. Get those parts, spend 2 or 3 hours putting the whole thing together, add the graphics cards and hard drives you already have, and you're done. Total price: $1414.94 + tax and you'll have one of the fastest setups you can possibly buy with hand-picked high quality parts. You could go faster in multi-core speed but the price would instantly triple or quadruple as you'd have to buy a high end Threadripper or Xeon and even then you'd still be much slower in single core. Assuming you have a large case that'll fit a triple water cooler, you can stop here. However, if you also need recommendations on a case, SSD, and video card, read on. SSD: WD Black SN850 2TB M.2 NVMe Interface PCIe Gen 4 Capacity: 2 Terabytes (2000 Gigabytes) Price: $319.99 Link: https://www.microcenter.com/product...id-state-drive-with-3d-tlc-nand-(wds200t1x0e) Every review I've looked at pitches this as the fastest SSD on the market bar none. The Samsung 980pro is the closest but in most benchmarks the WD SN850 edges it out slightly (and at a lower price!). It uses the generation 4 PCI Express standard giving it sustained read speeds of 7000 Megabytes per second. That is an astounding number considering where we were just a few years ago. There are Gen5 SSDs on the horizon but nobody knows when they will be released. For now, this is it. My 8700k box uses an Intel Optane 900p SSD which is a bit different than the usual stuff. Suffice it to say it is low latency and very fast. With this new SSD though, charts load in Sierrachart probably 2 or 3 times faster. That was a big pain point for me since I trade many different futures markets and I close my charts on Friday at market close. Opening Sierrachart on Sunday evening basically sucked. Loading and loading and loading on the Optane. This is no longer the case. As far as reliability, it's a newly released drive but nothing I've seen indicates the SN850 will be cause for concern. Case: Fractal Design Meshify 2 Price: $169.99 Link: https://www.microcenter.com/product...tempered-glass-window-mid-tower-computer-case What can I say? It's a case. It's on the large side so the water cooler fits, it seems quite sturdy, and there's no specific garishness to offend my (read: my wife's) delicate sensibilities. I like it. Video Card: PowerColor AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT Price: $559.99 Link: https://www.microcenter.com/product...cked-dual-fan-8gb-gddr6-pcie-40-graphics-card This may be the one item that doesn't work for you since you already have some video cards and you're running 7 monitors which as far as I can tell you won't be able to do here without some dongles and tinkering. I imagine your monitors are using display port. This card has 3 display ports and the motherboard has a single display port. There's a USB-C port on the back of the motherboard too that might have display port functionality but I'm not sure. I keep my monitor situation really simple since I just use one. However, that one monitor is a 65" 8k television hence why I got this specific video card. 8k TVs, as far as I've seen, only have HDMI inputs, no display port at all so to run one at 8k and 60 hertz, you need an HDMI 2.1 compatible video card. That means either an AMD RX 6x00 series card or an Nvidia 30x0 series card, the latest generations respectively. The Radeon RX 6600XT I got was one of the cheaper cards in stock that checked that specific box for me. I don't game hardly at all so I didn't really care about that but it does run an 8k screen over HDMI. If I were you, I'd probably see what you can make happen with the cards you already have and if you need more, you can always do that later after assembling the initial system. And that's it. If I'd gone pre-built from Dell or HP or whomever, I doubt I could have bought as nice a system, as fast a system, or a system with the potential longevity as this for the money. Possibly not at any price since, again, you're locked into the components they offer. And all this stuff has warranties and a return policy so I'm good there. I've found with computer stuff it either doesn't work out of the box or it works forever, rarely is there an in between (barring high wear components like hard drives and fans or abuse from heat). So if you don't have to return it the first day you're usually good. I hope this all helps. Here's a pic of my system running with the parts above (video card is unhooked but I'm doing stuff around it):
Nevermind. I misread. If you use 2 x NVS 510 (or similar), you can run all monitors off those cards and not need onboard graphics and avoid stability issues using onboard and discrete graphics together can cause. So if the prebuilt or custom PC's motherboard has a x16 slot and a x16 slot wired as x4 (or 2 x16 slots, but you'll probably need to go custom for that), you're good in terms of video cards.
Very eloquent. Here's what I remember of the DIY PC world... Man, looks like the newest footprints are clean and neat!
buy a laptop. the integrated display and battery backup are indispensible. You dont need a workhorse for stock trading. dont buy a chromebook, ger linux or windows 7 or prior used is fine
Thank you everyone for your replies, it gives me some good info to consider/brainstorm on atm.. First thing I think I want to try is just doing a basic RAM upgrade from my current 16gb to 64gb, I'm currently using DDR3, do I have to stick with that or can I go up to DDR4 without any issues? So for instance, something like this.. ? https://www.newegg.com/crucial-64gb-288-pin-ddr4-sdram/p/N82E16820156238?Description=crucial 64gb desktop&cm_re=crucial_64gb desktop-_-20-156-238-_-Product When I look at my GPU in the task manager only 10% or so is being used (it does occasionally spike up near 30% however), but over 60-70% of the memory is.. and that's right now with the market not being open so I'm hoping/thinking that a basic RAM upgrade will at least fix/reduce the lag for the time being which would then allow me more time to brainstorm how I want to move forward with my next comp.