I think I saw a tower at Costco for around 550 or so. It had like 6GB Ram, Quad Core, and a TB Hard Drive. Not too sure how much bigger you can go with your budget. Unless you build like these guys.
I buy them by the pallet on eBay. I'll buy like 10 machines and then outfit/spec them the way that particular client needs. Just make sure whatever you buy on eBay has dual CPU's - for some reason those guys are charging an arm & a leg for the additional heat-sync.
It seems that e bay has got them at the lowest price. Thanks for the info guys. On a side note. Since creating this thread I have gotten at least 3 private messages suggesting I do something else than trading, reason being I am only trying to obtain a rig for less than $500. The stipulation being this is all I can afford. I wonder where is all this unprovoked hate coming from? Perhaps I should put together a $10000 machine to halt the hate mail? LOL BTW nothing wrong with 10 grand machine if that is what one needs to harvest $$. Love and Peace! If you cannot control your emotions, trading is going to be a one way street.
I don't think it is hate, just common sense. God knows, I am a cheap bastard, but you are basicly trying to get away and go real cheap with the most important part of your trading set up. You want to use this for 3 years, so about $15 per month. Your internet cost is probably 3 times as much.... Computers are so cheap nowadays that you shouldn't really worry about lasting it for 36 months, you should be able to afford to buy one per year easily. Also, why go with old, when for that money you can buy pretty decent new machines, that would have costed 20 times as much 10 years ago? (just showing how much prices have dropped)
Go with what Winston has recommended. I have a 490 that i bought for 250, added a second processor, hdd, ram and it runs 24-7 in a corner. I use it as a home server for backups. No issues wht so ever.
You have to spend money to make money imo. A solid workstation will enable you to focus on what you need to... Trading.
They were not "nice". Be that as it may. The $500 machine is not for trading per se. More of a sand in the box to play with. I just wanted ET's opinion since those who trade generally buy computers that are solid and there are couple of people who frequent these boards who know a thing or two about PCs. Nothing wrong in harvesting that knowledge. It is all too easy to plunk 2K on a set up and have a solid machine. The real trick is to spend $500 and get the same bang for the buck. No need to bring a Ferrari when a job at hand is delivering pizzas. Cheers!
Build your own and educate yourself, it is relatively simple and you get exactly what you need and don't need... especially the builder software bloat.... Newegg is a good source for components and has a DIY building guide [there are ofc other suppliers i.e. ZR1trader's post]. Along with a google search on how to build a computer, shouldn't take more than a Saturday Afternoon to build and configure a system Newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Store/Promoti...-PC-Combos&cm_sp=ShoppingGuide-_-DIY-_-100111 Google: https://www.google.com/search?sourc...10.0.2.2.0.107.784.9j1.10.0...0.0.WOYOLvTqpTE If all you want to do is purchase an inexpensive system Dell & Lenovo are both fine, you just want to avoid compact/mini cases which may use non-standard motherboards and limited upgrade space for add'l drives, video cards, etc... [also future replacement is a pain, must go through them to replace = $$] Good Deals / discount coupons can be found: http://bensbargains.net/ Windows 7 install Tips: http://www.tweakhound.com/windows7/tweaking/index.html
> you just want to avoid compact/mini cases which may use non-standard > motherboards and limited upgrade space for add'l drives I go the other way. Everything here including some servers is micro atx based - I get 8 discs into a 2x5.25" bay All standard components - heck, my workstation is a MicroAtx board with 16gb RAM and can handle 2 full length high end graphics cards No need to put lots of air in in case you want to expand - and files better go on a SAN somewhere