Trading Specific PC's

[crazy trader]

I am an evening trader and do a lot of my analysis at night. My day job takes up my time preventing me from day-trading. That and I really don't have the nerve to lose my insurance and benefits that I currently get from that job.

Oh well enough on that. I have been looking at updating my current PC so that it could function a little better on the trading markets. I ran across this website and wondered if anyone had given them a try http://www.customtradingcomputers.com. They offer computers specifically designed for traders.

I have a habit of wanting the best there is on the market and wondered if anyone else had given them a try or had tried another similar service for having your computer built.

 

[Trader333]

Unless you have a specific need in terms of a particular software support need, then this is simply not needed. What are you trading and which software do you use ?


Paul

 

[rossored]

Unless you have a specific need in terms of a particular software support need, then this is simply not needed. What are you trading and which software do you use ?


Paul

Agreed.

For most purposes, a current Pentium D or Pentium 4/AMD Athlon 64 chipset will suffice with room to spare. Mate it to a min of a 128MB graphics card, 160GB SATA drive and 512MB to 1GB of RAM and that'll do plenty. A modern graphics card with VGA and DVI output gives you dual-monitor capability should you require it.

Otherwise, if you want something a bit snappier, get something with Intel's Core2Duo CPU and similar spec. I've just built myself a new Core2Duo and it absolutley kicks a**.

Funnily enough, I'm actually writing an article for a magazine based on this exact topic...

 

[TWI]

I use two Dell Optiplex GX620 workstations with 2G RAM. I run a lot of apps on each and this works perfectly. More of a worry for any trader I think is a reliable IP connection, a decent graphics card and plenty of screen space.

 

[Directional]

I'm currently using two Dell Precision 690 workstations, dual 3.6ghz xeons and 2gb RAM. the applications I'm running are pretty thin tho so this spec is overkill, but nice and fast and plenty of capacity should I need to run more taxing software in the future.

Ditto to twalkers observations on connectivity.

 

[rossored]

Guys, as 'research' then, what would you think is the absolute minimum spec for someone getting into trading (from home)? i have my own ideas, but I'd be interested in your opinions.

(sorry for hijacking your thread, crazy)

 

[TWI]

ZX81 with mastermind installed.

 

[Directional]

:cheesy:

 

[Jack o'Clubs]

The minimum is a pad of graph paper, an HB pencil, the morning's FT and the phone number of your broker. I know one successful position trader who does not use a PC.

Personally I find my 4 year-old 'PCWorld Special Offer' (2GHz/133MHz, 256MB RAM, 60GB) is straining a bit (particularly the RAM) with the applications I run and am considering upgrading. I bought a computer magazine recently and this was its 'best on test' among the new dual core PCs: http://www.eclipsecomputers.com/systemview.aspx?id=97 . Seems good value, so will probably go for one of those, unless I hang around for the launch of Windows Vista ...

The only trader specific spec I would want is ability to run more than one screen from the graphics card, although currently I only use one.

 

[rossored]

ZX81 with mastermind installed.

Boy, you should see me here, rolling around on the floor with a big split in my sides...

lol

Jacko - thanks (incidentally the pc on that link will run two screens concurrently with that GPU)

The rest of you - tsk!

 

[Directional]

JOC, I'm testing Vista on one of my machines right now - i'm very impressed with it and you needn't wait around for it to be released before upgrading your system to a new machine.

I'd suggest you get a minimum of 2GB RAM tho if you can afford it, as Vista seems to have a reasonable memory use overhead, but it flies on my current spec systems - I've noticed even on XP that upgrading my system memory made a more significant performance improvement than upgrading the CPU. If your PC has to use virtual memory on the HD, it creates all kinds of bottlenecks.

 

[rossored]

JOC, I'm testing Vista on one of my machines right now - i'm very impressed with it and you needn't wait around for it to be released before upgrading your system to a new machine.

I'd suggest you get a minimum of 2GB RAM tho if you can afford it, as Vista seems to have a reasonable memory use overhead, but it flies on my current spec systems - I've noticed even on XP that upgrading my system memory made a more significant performance improvement than upgrading the CPU. If your PC has to use virtual memory on the HD, it creates all kinds of bottlenecks.

Couldn't agree more.

I've only got a gig at present but my CPU is current-gen so Vista RC1 runs very very well. No doubt that with another gig that i'll add shortly it'll only sweeten the deal.

 

[Jack o'Clubs]

I didn't realise my RAM was so underpowered, nor that it was so easy to upgrade. Have just plugged in another 512MB (have room to take it up to 1.5GB if need be), and can't believe the difference. A new PC for £35 and 2 minutes work! How many people buy new PCs when all they really need to do is that? Thanks guys.

 

[Glenn]

ZX81 with mastermind installed.

Alternatively a 1978 Sinclair Mk 14 with 256 bytes of RAM.
www.old-computers.com/MUSEUM/computer.asp?st=1&c=961
Well maybe not - lol, but the machine itself was a good investment - worth 10 times the original price nowadays. Still got mine.

Glenn (nerd)

 

[Directional]

I didn't realise my RAM was so underpowered, nor that it was so easy to upgrade. Have just plugged in another 512MB (have room to take it up to 1.5GB if need be), and can't believe the difference. A new PC for £35 and 2 minutes work! How many people buy new PCs when all they really need to do is that? Thanks guys.

Good work. I was surprised myself when I went from 256mb to 768mb on my previous PC a few years ago. Surprised enough to then go to 1.5gb not too long after and was surprised again :cheesy:

if you want to squeeze the very best out of what you've got, spend a little time googling and familiarizing yourself with XP tweaks and checking out some of the tweaking and system maintenance programs like WinXPmanager, O&O defrag/PerfectDisk, xp-antispy, SystemMechanic. A regular defrag that is optimized to move the files that are most regularly accessed to the front of the partition makes a noticeable if modest difference, as does a regular temp file & internet junk clearout.

Particularly figure out optimizing the number of processes running - hit control/alt/delete and bring up task manager, look at the processes list and see how many you've got running in the background after a fresh boot - on XP mine is optimised at 22 processes from a fresh boot. Make sure you know what your system is loading up into memory under autostart when you boot up as un-necessary programs take up CPU time and memory that could be used by other programs or windows instead (for that overall faster feel).