New Computer

ChartMan,
Many thanks once again. My Pro is legit, so I have no worries on that score, and, I have already installed service pack 1, and yes, it took 4 hours!! (I had to to get access to Java to deal with D4F)
and no, I don't have broadband, it is not available in my area yet. Had to sit up ready to reconnect to BT, Ah the wonders of modern electronic communications!!!.
I shall now look at the updates and install them.
Maybe you should be in the teaching profession??? You are certainly educating me!!
Orchard.
 
Just passing on the acquired knowledge from a lifetime of working with computers.... since 1969 in fact...... if only I had that much experience of trading. Any way, you're welcome. Teaching had crossed my mind, but then I'd actually have to do some paper work....
 
Graphics

In my experiance the Best graphic cards that you can use for trading are the Maxtox G200 cards. They have quad screen capabilities and are super sharp. they work very well on flat screens. If you are interested in one let me know
 
Price of PC

HI Orchard,

And ChartMan - very good posts. How much did your complete PC system set you back and did you go for TFT screens?

Thanks
 
I need to get a new computer and an thinking of buying Dell 8400. Chartman advised three 17” LCDs
http://www.trade2win.com/boards/showthread.php?p=45012#post45012
and I hoped to buy two with the option of adding a third.

The Dell people here (Ireland) initially told me “ The computer will support 2 monitors, however it will not support two analogue monitors automatically unless you buy a VGA connector and DVI-I to VGA dongle (which unfortunately we do not supply).
The best option is to get one digital and one analogue monitor as this will require no adapter.”

Unenthusiastic about paying extra for digital “DVI is not needed” – Chartman, I pointed out that Dell USA do provide connectors which they now acknowledge “However I have contacted my presales department and you are correct I can supply the adapter - the gforce 4 DVI to VGA adapter cable kit which will cost €12.”



They are still unhelpful about a third monitor “The addition for a third monitor would require you to get a second video card which can be very messy to set up. The only system we make that would be capable of connecting three monitors would be Precision 470 or Precision 670 with the matrix quad graphics card”

A recent post on elitetrader refers to difficulties as a result of the replacement of AGP by PCIe slots.


http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=36008&highlight=dell+8400

"07-28-04 12:10 AM
New PCIe video card connection CAUTION
I was just about to buy a new Dell 8400 computer, and was planning to move my Matrox quad PCI card and dual AGP card into it. But I realized it has a new type of video card connection, a PCIe (PCI express) It has 5 slots: three PCI, one PCIe, and one PCIe x 16 (graphics).

There are no AGP slots. So my dual head card can't be used in it.

I'm told a PCI card will not work in a PCIe slot. I could put my quad card in a PCI slot, but that would use up a valuable accessory slot, with the PCIe slots potentially empty.

I almost didn't catch this, so anyone planning to buy a new computer and move existing video cards into it, may want to double check what connections it has.

------------------------------

The Dell 8400 comes with an ATI Radeon X300SE card (the only choice) which apparently is dual display capable. One website called this a low end card?

I've read here about potential problems mixing video card manufacturers. Matrox says they won't have a PCIe multi monitor card for many months.

I'm thinking that trying to use my Matrox quad card with this ATI PCIe card to run six monitors might be asking for trouble, maybe even more so with the new PCIe connection. But the higher end, faster Dell's all come with PCIe connections. so I'm thinking maybe I should buy a slightly slower computer (without PCIe slots), to ensure stability and compatability."



The above, including references to Matrox card, are from the elitrtrader post. I’m now well and truly out of my depth and would greatly appreciate advice from Chartman and others about the specifications
http://www.trade2win.com/boards/showthread.php?t=4234&page=1&pp=15


and, particularly, the monitor problem


RobQ
 
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regardless of any advice you get on here ( and at least for computers - advice on here is very good) - this is a tricky time of changing computer technology - so you really want to find someone with a fully working version of what you want and doing what you want with it - and then just copy the specs EXACTLY - until you can find that - hold back
 
We buy dells and run them with 3 monitors and our application is multi direct X blah blah, far in excess of anything you may need. We just use a cheap PCI video adapter,generally Nvidia chipset. Works fine. If you have a Matrox 4 port, go for the lower spec machine. Traders don't need rocket specs. A P4 2.6 gig is more than enough.
 
ChartMan said:
We buy dells and run them with 3 monitors and our application is multi direct X blah blah, far in excess of anything you may need. We just use a cheap PCI video adapter,generally Nvidia chipset. Works fine. If you have a Matrox 4 port, go for the lower spec machine. Traders don't need rocket specs. A P4 2.6 gig is more than enough.


Sorry - I've edited my post and put the bit about the Matrox port in quotes, it's from the elitetrader thread. I don't have one.

I'd be happy enought to put a video adapter in. I'm not sure of the significance of the fact that the Radeon x300 se video card which comes as standard is NOT included in the list of
Video Adapter Chip Sets Supported in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;296538&Product=winxp

"You can use any combination of the PCI or AGP-based video adapters that are listed in this section with multiple monitors. Only video adapters that are based on the chip sets that are listed in this section work as primary and secondary video adapters.

The following drivers are supported by Microsoft and are included on the Windows XP CD-ROM:"

robq
 
I have a Dell Precision workstation and am driving dual Dell FP1701 TFT monitors using an Nvidia 5600 gfx card. Before that I used the 5200 model and prior to that still I had the Matrox G450.

No problems at all with any of the above cards. The nvidia card I am using currently has one VGA and one DVI output - the Dell panels automatically select between digital or analog inputs. Windows XP is a dream for setting up multiple screens.

Planning to upgrade to quad screens soon - check out www.colorgraphic.net for cards that will drive 4 or 8 screens at 2048 x 1600 resolution!
 
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