New Desktop

[gedward3]

I'm looking to purchase a new desktop and 2 or 3 monitors for purely trading purposes. I was thinking of 6 or 8GB Ram,GB or a bit more Hard Drive with a decent graphics card to run 2 or 3 monitors. Not really up to date with chips these days so any advice would be appreciated. Would like to get this for gbp1000 if possible and I live in Hong Kong so would need to be delivered.

Any advice and links much appreciated


Ged

 

[A Dashing Blade]

Take a look here for ideas.
Affordable All-Rounder August 2012 | bit-tech.net[/URL]

Tbh £500 of box (ie no monitors) will be more than sufficiant. You don't need a bang-up-to-date, top-of-the-range chip to process real-time data. In fact an old dual-core would do.

However can personally recommend the Radeon 7850 graphic cards, very powerful, very quiet. I run two Dell 2711 monitors off mine.

 

[0007]

Intel SandyBridge / IvyBridge CPU with appropriate motherboard will run 2 monitors off their integral graphics chip - fine for trading and office type apps - and very fast. Add a £20-£30 graphics card (last year's now unfashionable model) and you can run 4 monitors no problem (again, get suitable motherboard). Unsuitable for high-end Video editing but that's not our game is it.

 

[neil324]

Make sure you include a SSD hard drive.

 

[trader9281]

I would recommend splashing on screens though

 

[Smooth]

I'm looking to purchase a new desktop and 2 or 3 monitors for purely trading purposes. I was thinking of 6 or 8GB Ram,GB or a bit more Hard Drive with a decent graphics card to run 2 or 3 monitors. Not really up to date with chips these days so any advice would be appreciated.

I used to keep track of chips, MIPS, increasing number of cores, platforms, L1 and L2 cache and cache speeds etc etc.

I've given up. For most purposes, including trading, the exact CPU is not really relevant any more. Video editing might make heavy demands on CPUs (though more so on data transfers i.e. RAM/HDD speeds), but even that can be done on any modern PC with very little problem.

The same with GPUs (graphics cards). If it has the desired number of outputs, then it's going to meet most traders' requirements. And, as per a previous post, there's the possibility of adding a second graphics card if you need it. The physical insertion of a new card is a relatively simply job but I suggest you get the PC manufacturer to install it before shipping even if it means paying a little bit more.

 

[canaussieuck]

CHeck out falcon trading computers...that's where I'm ordering my next machine from. Can't even get a decent machine built with a good multi monitor card in china.

CanOz

 

[ast4]

I have no idea why some retail level traders are preoccupied with having a high spec system. The last two firms I've worked for have used pretty low-end machines for actual trading, at least compared to these ridiculous falcon computers. You're not playing games on this thing.

A system with 4 GB of ram and decent CPU should be more than sufficient if it's just for trading. If you're doing research, that should be an entirely different system to begin with.

You could just pick up a refurbished dell precision T3500 for under US$350, throw in another quadro and call it a day.

 

[canaussieuck]

It totally depends on your needs. Running NT with 6 screens takes some power. I don't use allot of indicators but if you start popping them on then soon NT starts to use resources. I've decided to try and build a PC for the first time. The Falcon machines are expensive but they last a long time...

I just want something fast for backtesting, that works well with multiple screens.

CanOz

 

[ast4]

It's not so much processing power that you'll need but rather a beefy PSU. If you want to do it "right". Then have 1 machine dedicated to backtesting and 1 machine dedicated to trading. The actual trading machine doesn't need to at all powerful, but the backtesting machine should depending on what you're done.

To give you an idea of what I'm working with. The trading machine has 2.0 ghz core 2 duo with 4 gb of ram and dual quadro FX540 which I picked up for $300 (refurbished dell lease computer). The backtesting system on the other hand has dual xeon E5-2620 w/ 64 GB ECC RAM, 4 TB RAID 0.

While a trading machine doesn't require much power, you don't want it to get bogged down while you're backtesting during trading hours. Separating the systems is really the way to go. Every single firm I've worked for has done this as well.

 

[Sanity]

It's not so much processing power that you'll need but rather a beefy PSU. If you want to do it "right". Then have 1 machine dedicated to backtesting and 1 machine dedicated to trading. The actual trading machine doesn't need to at all powerful, but the backtesting machine should depending on what you're done.

To give you an idea of what I'm working with. The trading machine has 2.0 ghz core 2 duo with 4 gb of ram and dual quadro FX540 which I picked up for $300 (refurbished dell lease computer). The backtesting system on the other hand has dual xeon E5-2620 w/ 64 GB ECC RAM, 4 TB RAID 0.

While a trading machine doesn't require much power, you don't want it to get bogged down while you're backtesting during trading hours. Separating the systems is really the way to go. Every single firm I've worked for has done this as well.

Def agree.... If you can afford it, go with a PCI-ex SSD card too....

 

[ast4]

Def agree.... If you can afford it, go with a PCI-ex SSD card too....

Definitely if one could afford it SSD would be nice, especially if many of your problems require random access. Often time though sequential access is what is needed for backtesting type problems and speed benefits there are not worth the price differential.

We also run tesla c2075s which really speed up some processes, especially if you're generating random numbers. Just load the numbers on the GPU and transfer to memory.

 

[rawrschach]

You can't buy computers in Hong Kong?

What dyou need all that RAM/GPU power for? Trading requires practically no computer power.

 

[Sanity]

You can't buy computers in Hong Kong?

What dyou need all that RAM/GPU power for? Trading requires practically no computer power.

It reads as being used for backtesting, not as trading.

 

[Sanity]

Definitely if one could afford it SSD would be nice, especially if many of your problems require random access. Often time though sequential access is what is needed for backtesting type problems and speed benefits there are not worth the price differential.

We also run tesla c2075s which really speed up some processes, especially if you're generating random numbers. Just load the numbers on the GPU and transfer to memory.

Tesla, Nice.... SSD is good for random, yes, but also for sequential. Can get well over 1,000MBytes/sec if you need it!

Having said all that, if it's just back testing on Metatrader, probably not worth all that - just go for a fast cpu....

 

[solostocktrader]

I'm looking to purchase a new desktop and 2 or 3 monitors for purely trading purposes. I was thinking of 6 or 8GB Ram,GB or a bit more Hard Drive with a decent graphics card to run 2 or 3 monitors. Not really up to date with chips these days so any advice would be appreciated. Would like to get this for gbp1000 if possible and I live in Hong Kong so would need to be delivered.

Any advice and links much appreciated


Ged

I found this very helpful when I was needing a trading computer. Check it out and get informed on what you need.

Free Guide | EZ Trading Computers

 

[Trading Spaces]

Intel next unit of computing is £280 add memory and msata ssd. £400 has two hdmi ports and is 4 iches square. 3 port model will be out in the summer.
Intel® Desktop Boards ? Next Unit of Computing (NUC)

 

[gedward3]

Intel next unit of computing is £280 add memory and msata ssd. £400 has two hdmi ports and is 4 iches square. 3 port model will be out in the summer.
Intel® Desktop Boards ? Next Unit of Computing (NUC)

Wow that looks pretty good.

Ged

 

[Lord Flasheart]

this neednt be overly expensive. Im no computer geek,but a basic graphics card is sufficient as long as it can support the number of monitors you want.I have a quad that I run on a 2.3 with 3gb ram. My broadband is 30. All works well.

 

[Lax_Van_Dumb]

Just get a 42" tv, (about £260 in the Xmas run up) switch to vga or hdmi input then configure your screen to take 4 charts. If you feel the need to flick back to bloomburg or cnbc then its a flick with the remote. Why do so many newbies want to load up and have multiple screens? It won't make you a better trader but it might impress the fook out of the chicks, especially if its in your bedroom.