Advice needed on purchasing new PC for trading (Nov 08)

[TommyHilton]

My current PC is about 5 years old so I intend to replace it anyway.

Any advice about what to look for my new PC would be gratefully received.

I am about to start trading online from home - day and short-term trading using CFDs on shares and forex, using charts and technical analysis. In addition to trading, I also would need to use the PC for gaming.

What spec etc should I be looking for please?

Any particular PC brands or component brands etc to recommend or avoid?

How much should I look to have to spend on a PCU/monitor package?

I am willing to pay a bit more if it means getting hardware with spec etc that won't become too out of date too quickly.

What size monitor is best for trading? (yet affordable)

How important will it be to run more than 1 monitor when trading? What do I need to look out for on the PC so that one can do this?

(I am not technie so in layman's terms please)

thanks
Tommy

 

[Trader333]

If it were me one of the key things would be to ensure the OS is Windows XP and avoid Vista at all costs.


Paul

 

[shadowninja]

Haha yes.

TBH if I was in a similar situation, I'd just worry about a spec that is good for gaming. If it can handle gaming, for a new retail trader, the PC will be more than sufficient for trading.

 

[Lord Flasheart]

Tommy Ive just been through all this myself so Ill tell you what I got. From pC world. I got a pentium dual,procesor speed of 2.6,2mb ram two graphics cards to run 4 monitors(already had the mons). I had it downgraded to XP and paid them to install necessary software.Totall cost £750 inc vat. They can only be got from the business dept.

 

[samuelhogg]

Can I ask why to avoid Vista?

I am just about to buy from Dell, they have an option where the system will be preinstalled with XP but it comes with Vista upgrade which I can install at a later date.

I was just going to get the Vista version.

 

[Lord Flasheart]

Vista uses up too much resources and some of the trading platforms run better on xp,if you buy one with xp it will have the disks to upgrade at anytime

 

[lwebb]

Vista is bloated and slower than XP. The speed difference tends to be masked because it's running on newer machines. A lot of people have trouble with graphics drivers et al with Vista since it was pushed out before vendors could fully iron out problems e.g. NVidia.

Of course I only found out all this after I'd bought a Vista machine ;-)

 

[samuelhogg]

Many thanks for your responses.

Have been looking at the graphic cards available with the dell machines as I will be using 3 monitors, moving to 6 in the near future. So I think I might take the Xp choice if you have been having problems with graphic cards drivers.

 

[TommyHilton]

Looking online, I have found a PC package for £500 for the following:
Intel Duo Core E8500; 4GB (3.2 after o/s); 3.16GHz; 750MB; nVidia 8800GTS graphics card 512MB .
with 22" monitor and external speakers. Vista though.

Does this sound a good deal?

Will this be more than adequate and not become obsolete too quickly?

ta

 

[BJ21]

Ring up Dell .....the call will go to India .... but surprisingly they know what they are on about !!!
Tell them exactly what you need and what you are using it for and also your budget !!! ...... They will recommend you the best product.
I did this 2 years ago ... firstly i was on the Dell website looking at XPS models .... These are purely domestic.... go onto the business website and go for a work station

The girl on the phone guided me through the business site and explained all the products i asked questions on .... Very helpful must have spent 70mins on the phone and then also a couple of call backs to buy the system.

I'm not a computer expert ...... but i would use a good PC for trading …and trading only anything else use your existing PC or a laptop (exactly what i do) I upgraded my laptop last month …… using ‘orca’ its now at 4GB and only for £55 …….that upgrade a couple of years ago would of cost you close to £350 actually i dont think many laptops on the market have 4gb.

you can trade from 1 monitor !! but every1 wants more !! dont get 1 big monitor get 2 smaller 1's and if you don’t initially get them as a package you can pick them up at good prices from 'play' 'ebay' ect......


also if you haggle you will get some type of discount or some freebie !!

 

[Lord Flasheart]

Trying to explain to dell what I wanted was a problem so I gave up.I went to pc world business section and sat there with a guy for about two hrs.If you get xp you only need 3mb ram and I have two and it runs fine.You must also make sure that there are enough pci or pcix slots to take the cards. If you are not a computer genius as I clearly am not a face to face chat in pc world business centre is well worth the effort.I picked my comp up 3 days later plugged in my monitors booted up and it was ready for action.I run esignal,betfair x2 and binarybet and it all runs well and fast