How do I trade of 2 monitors, and one computer. I have 1 monitor right now. What special program do I need to install? And where do I connect the second monitor too?
All you need is a dualhead video card which your mobo supports. "Extended Desktop" (multiple monitors) is a Windows function. Unless your computer is older than 5 years, or is a bottom-of-the-barrel el-cheapo, your mobo will have at least one PCIEx16 slot. Nvidia Quadro NVS 290 PCIEx16 is a good choice on monitors up to 28". On eBay now you can get a 290 for $65. If you want to save a few $$, you can also get a 285 for $30.. including DMS59 DVI and shipping. (Major diff between 290 vs 285 is the 290 has 256MB memory, the 285 has 128 memory... and 128 is more than enough.)
I know that some traders are very technically savvy but I'm not and don't really have the time. My fear is to make a mistake and waste valuable time trying to rectify it. So, I'm in the camp that would always buy and get the tech support. I'd rather pay 1-2k more than to spend hours ordering, waiting, learning how to assemble, loading OS, etc. I can not be convinced to do this myself. I've ordered from both NTI and Tradingcomputers.com. Both offer very good machines. The one biggest problem that I had with Tradingcomputers is that they are in a different time zone (I'm in EST). So, you can't get tech support until 2 hours AFTER the market opens!! Horrible way to run a company targeting traders. When I did get through, it's generally been a good experience. With NTI, their tech support works like 12 hours a day. They weren't able to resolve one issue that I had (memory leak) so I had to get an outside tech to help. So, in some cases, the warranty support isn't as helpful.
. i went right down to my local big computer box store and on there computer went down the list of everything i wanted and bamm its built in 48 hrs.1/3 the price of the computers from xview and the same components.They put in the video cards and everything.As someone on here said things like the i-7 intel chip over the quad intel chip are a huge overkill and add nothing to performance for what we due. Do people know that windows xp can use no more than 3 gig of ram
Guys go to Tigerdirect.com buy all the stuff there its so cheap an easy to set up! you can buy 2 good video cards for 100 dollars nowadays all you need is one PCIe and a PCI and you already have the capacity of 4 monitors!
Well, you can buy a Dell business system and get the same support for not much more than the retail pricing on the list of parts posted above. Actually may be cheaper in many cases since pretty much no one can purchase a complete system in parts as cheaply as Dell. I'd avoid HP though as their support sucks.
I used to be a Dell guy but switched to HP Workstations and couldn't be happier. I had an xw9300, an xw8600 & may be in the market for another one sometime soon. Also, the support has been great thus far. Eric
In answer of the original question, I bought the entry level computer from Trading Computers about 3 years ago, when it was a 4-monitor, sub-$1000 machine. Their pricing and configurations have changed a bit since then I think. It has performed very well over the years. One thing I always love as compared to my newer Dell laptop: I can turn on that TC desktop and the startup time is very fast (running XP Home on both) compared to the laptop. I bought the laptop from Dell's business division, supposedly it was to be delivered "stripped-down" in terms of software, without extra garbage that I wouldn't need/use for trading, but when I turn that pig on, I might as well go for a coffee break because it seems to take forever to get going. I hate that... I was mainly running esignal/redi, and usually had an excel spreadsheet linked to redi, plus often an internet explorer running at the same time for news and such.