Advice On New Computer

fast - interesting feedback on Dell. All of the machines I've bought from them did work properly out of the box. Goes to show they can still slip up sometimes though.

Should have told them to either have someone at your site the next day to fix the installation, or give you a refund for your time, or they could eat the machine :)
 
arch,

just adding a little humor to an otherwise banal subject....

dell makes good boxes, and they often rate high in the reviews...

and their tech support is some of the best there is....

so you really can't go wrong "getting a dell dude"

however, for the more discerning shopper, research and compare each component to see what you are getting for your money.

after all, a box is the sum of its parts.

i like Athlon chips, certain hard drives and motherboards etc...

true custom built systems give you more choice.


peace

doug :)
 
I wouldn't spend a grand on a PC and get cheap on a monitor. Its the part you interact with the most and the specs on the monitor you posted are at the other end of the performance scale from the premium video card.
 
Has anyone purchased a computer recently for trading purposes?

If so, would you mind posting the details of what you bought, the alternatives you considered to the various options, and why you bought what you bought?

I'm in the market for a new PC for trading purposes.

Thanks.

-- SP
 
I build my own machines, something that I have been doing for many years. In the future I might consider the TriKinetics products. With the amount of money I earn from trading I cannot justify spending time on building my own boxes. Unfortunately, I upgraded all of them this year. And I have no clear idea what to do with a bunch of expensive, large Sony monitors, so I guess that I will be using these systems quite a while yet.

For the longest time I thought about buying the Dell trader workstations. AFAIK those machines are no longer being produced. Apparently, Dell stopped manufacturing them after the crash of 2000 and the decline in demand. A couple months ago when I visited the IBM website trader workstations were still available. I got to try one last year at the summer Online Trading Expo. Their hardware was quite nice. You might want to look into these, if you are getting ready to buy something.

As for the OS, I see no reason to become involved with W2K. I run NT on all my trading computers. It works perfectly. I stopped using AMD processors a couple years ago. There were always unexplained crashes. Now with Intel and NT, I NEVER have a crash.

Some advice I would like to give you is get 256 MB of SDRAM and do not waste money on a large hard drive. If this machine is going to be used only for trading and some basic business applications there surely is no reason to have more than 10 GB. Avoid wasting money on a DVD also. When in doubt do without. You will be throwing it away sooner or later anyway.
 
Thanks Private for your response.

I should have been more clear in my expected PC usage.

I'll be using the PC simulataneously for:

+ Real Time Quote Program (Qcharts)

+ Multiple Trading Software applications (IB's TWS)

+ TradeStation & RadarStation 2000i ProSuite.

+ DynaStore / DynaLoader

+ E-mail

+ Web browsing

+ Qfeed for Excel

+ Excel

+ mIRC

+ Word occasionally.

Thanks.

-- SP
 
I just bought my system for daytrading, this is my experience:

Computer:
512 MB of RAM
AMD Athlon chip
DDR technology (Double Data Rate, which supposedly doubles the RAM)
1.4 Gigabyte hard drive
Windows Millenium (with an XP upgrade coupon)
Cost: $1,400

The brand I went with was COMPAQ, and this brand is NOT RECOMMENDED. I had very bad experiences with Compaq, and I would never buy one again. Instead I would probably go with a Micron PC, which is supposedly as good as Dell, and you can purchase one through a local retailer (e.g. Best Buy).

Monitors:
I got four 19 inch monitors at Cosco, cost = $200 each (brand: Sylvana). So far, they've been very good.

Video card:
Appian Geronimo Pro 4
Got it on e-Bay for $250 (retail new ~ $900).

Good luck.


:) Simba :p
 
A few thoughts:

Monitors: If you are looking at LCDs be sure they are DIGITAL (have a "DVI" input) and not analog-only. Also, unlike CRTs, LCDs have a "native" resolution where they should be run. Most 15-in. are 1024x768; 17-in. are generally 1280x1024. After size and resolution, look at dot-pitch (smaller=better) as well as response time (<35ms).

Pentium 4 Processors: Be sure whichever you choose employs the Socket478 and not Socket432. '478 is newer and will be forwardly compatible with faster CPUs.

PC Memory: As suggested earlier, get PC800. In general, for our purposes, as a broad rule of thumb, at this time, memory over 512MB is not that useful.

Video Cards: Go for AGP (opposed to PCI) on a new system and make sure it has a true "DVI" output (for your digital LCD). All the 3D, TV-out, Gaming stuff currently popular has little use for us. Matrox is my card of choice, for no other reason than I like them.

Hard Drives: Unless you have a real reason to go with SCSI (faster and more expense) be sure to shop a system with "Fast ATA 100" interface and mate it with an appropriate 7200rpm ATA 100 drive. (The difference in cost between 10gb and 40gb is generally less than $50 for the same drive.)

I used to be a "build your own" but the world has gotten much more complicated. Instead I went "off the shelf:"

Dell 8200, 1.9Ghz P-4
512MB PC800 memory
40gb 7200rpm ATA 100 hard drive (WD caviar)
NEC 16x/10x/40x CDR/W
Windows XP Professional
All other options (sound, video, keyboard, etc.) were the
cheapest Dell offered, as I never planned on using 'em.
-- $1200

Added the following:
Logitech iFreedom Cordless keyboard + Optical Mouse
Belkin 600VA uninterrupted power supply
Matrox G550 Dual DVI
SGI 1600sw Flat Panel (one of hopefully two)

The construction of the Dell box was good, easy to upgrade, pretty quiet. No problems as of yet. I opted for the 1-year on-site warranty on the basis that it is either going to work or not within a short period of time. Dunno about XP as yet. I was a staunch supporter of W2K, but went for XP in this deal because of price.

HTH
 
Joe,

How do you like the cordless keyboard and mouse. I would like to use them, but I have heard varying reports as to their reliability. I have these visions of a glitch costing major $ because of an erroneous execution. Thanks in advance for your opinion.
 
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