To GNOME, and also JHO: thank you very much for these informations! Your help is appreciated... Then I'll order my new system today! X.Mas in summer D.
Oh, I forgot: are 2GB Ram sufficient? Is 4 GB overkill? (win XP) NB: I'm just reading, that XP doesn't recognize more than 2 GB...
2GB is sufficient but 4GB is always better. As for XP recognizing it...The limit is actually 3GB in some 32bit XP installations (which is what you have listed in those configs) depending upon your mobo and what features it has. I have no idea if either of those have the ability to see more than 3GB in 32bit XP. perhaps gnome can answer that one.
I've read that XP 32-bit will recognize a maximum of "3.2-3.8GB of RAM.. depending upon the system and settings".
Unless you also run something like Photoshop, even 1G of RAM is plenty. XP is very good about paging-out lower priority functions to leave lots of physical RAM available. (I picked up a new T3400 with 4GB of RAM. Replaced it with 1GB for my own trading rig. I put the 4GB into a Vista machine which can use it. Vista apparently attempts to "cache everything"... so the more RAM the better. Not the case with XP.) With all of your trading apps running, check your Task Manager and see how much physical RAM is still available under, "Physical Memory (K) Available". (Check it again with your games loaded, if you game on your trading rig.) That will tell you if you can benefit from more RAM. In my 2G RAM XP rig, there is still 1.5G available... it's not being used, so in effect the 2nd G of RAM is a waste. 1G would be plenty in that rig, too.
I can't speak to the quality difference between the Dell computer model names, but I will say that the Q6600 is an excellent chip, PROVIDED you actually use 3 or more cores a nontrivial amount of the time. Running one trading interface isn't going to do it. (You'll be lucky to ever even max out 2 cores, unless you run two at once AND they're very slow.) Unless you're running compute-heavy AND parallelized algorithms for your trading, you're probably not going to get to use all the cores. Software can only use 4 cores if it's specifically written to do so, or if you're running 4 separate near-100% CPU applications at once (unlikely but who am I to say you can't? ) Both of those graphics cards SHOULD drive two monitors just fine, based on what I see on the Internet; but you might want to look at the Dell specs just to make sure. (They should have two DVI ports, and based on what I'm seeing on the Web, they do. That will guarantee that they'll drive any two Precision displays except for the $1000+ 30" ones such as the 3008WFP.) The ECC Ram in the Precision is interesting. It may make the machine more stable over really long periods of time, although note that I run non-ECC without apparent problems for months at a time on my trading machines. Good luck!
Yes, the Precision T3400 is made with much higher quality ( it weighs 38 lbs. ) and a ton more flexibility in that it comes with 2 PCI-Express 16x cards that will allow you to run 4 monitors. Also notice that the Precision workstations come with a standard 3-year warranty whereas the Vostro's only come with a 1-year warranty. To me, the decision is easy . . . PRECISION T3400 ALL THE WAY!!! For what it's worth, the Vostro-400 has only one PCI-Express 16x slot, and will not support anything more than 2 monitors. The Precision comes with 2 PCI-E slots and I have BOTH of them filled with NVS-290 graphics cards ( +$80 upgrade ). The Precision comes in a real nice full-metal case. The Vostro comes in a typical Dell plastic case. I should know. I initially bought a Vostro-400 and sent it back to Dell to purchase a brand new Precision T3400 with a 2.66 Duo-Core E8200 Intel processor ( +$139 upgrade ) back in early April. Gnome and I are the T3400 "Kings" Love it!
Then I will join you soon... My brand new T3400 is on the way!! have a nice weekend, and again thanx for your help! D.