Build Your Own - Step by Step ( i7 2600k)

[ofthomas]

Quote from Bolimomo:


...

- i7 third generation processor
...

You should be able to build one around $1000 - $1200 or so I think.

i7 is by no means the fastest CPU per say, but if overclocked, and depending on the workload, it sure can be...

 

[Bolimomo]

I think what calhawk01 said as "fastest" is just a general, relative term. We are not competing to build a machine to do weather forecast. Unless he has special requirements for his trading (but from his post I didn't catch that). i7 third generation is pretty good to me.

 

[Tonkadad]

Quote from ofthomas:

i7 is by no means the fastest CPU per say, but if overclocked, and depending on the workload, it sure can be... [/

Also price/performance ratio is an important consideration, I would imagine for most people that have a 1- 2 year old machine, the ratio of used/unused clock cycles favors the later.

What can you expect from overclocking? 10%. 20%. Does it even matter if you are not close to pegging your system out?

 

[ofthomas]

Quote from Bolimomo:

I think what calhawk01 said as "fastest" is just a general, relative term. We are not competing to build a machine to do weather forecast. Unless he has special requirements for his trading (but from his post I didn't catch that). i7 third generation is pretty good to me.

i dont disagree with you, and the calhawk01 guy didnt bother to state how he would use it... but said fastest, so technically, i7 itself isnt, unless one tweaks it... in any event, as I stated... it all depends on the workload... it is pointless to have the fastest if all you are doing is charting and retail trading with bloated platforms...

I have for my main CQG workstation a good and old Xeon W3680, and for backtesting an overclocked i7 I put together... mostly because I needed the close to 5GHz clock for the calculations I am doing, and also cuz I wanted to...

 

[ofthomas]

Quote from Tonkadad:

Quote from ofthomas:

i7 is by no means the fastest CPU per say, but if overclocked, and depending on the workload, it sure can be...

Also price/performance ratio is an important consideration, I would imagine for most people that have a 1- 2 year old machine, the ratio of used/unused clock cycles favors the later.

What can you expect from overclocking? 10%. 20%. Does it even matter if you are not close to pegging your system out?

my investment window is 3 years for a system, I still keep them around even after that.. I give them away to family and such... long ago, I would swap every year... price/perf does not matter if you just do it for the write off more than anything else.

 

[calhawk01]

Quote from ofthomas:

hmmm... you didnt answer any of my questions, so not sure what i can help you with... my suggestion, there are a few threads that deal with any questions you might have where everyone has exposed their opinion... just review those.

what platform you use? windows 8

what is your timeframe? 1 min and tick

what is your budget? good performance but not trying to over do it.

do you really need fastest? not the fastest, i suppose, but pretty darn fast. i will be setting my windows setting to ''performance'' i dont care about looks of the machine

goal is to potentially run 4 automated strategies and all that is required for running automated strategies (real time data, trading platform digesting the real time, trading platform digesting the logic, trading platform running the logic on real time data, creating the orders, sending the orders, api usage, 1000 symbols)

1000 symbols, 1 min/ tick data, 4 automated strategies

 

[calhawk01]

Quote from Bolimomo:

What did you mean by "gold standard"?

I haven't shopped around for a while. It seems that you can build it yourself with something like:

- i7 third generation processor
- a motherboard that supports it, with 3+ PCIe X16 slots
- 8 GB of RAM, or maybe make it 16 GB of RAM
- a 128 GB SSD
- a regular 1TB disk drive (for online backup)
- 2 to 3 small, inexpensive PCIe X16 dual monitor display cards
- a good power supply
- a chassis
- a good CPU fan
- Windows 7 or 8
- plus the trivial stuff, such as keyboard, mouse, etc

You should be able to build one around $1000 - $1200 or so I think.

gold standard = student loans

JK lol

as far as the mother board is considered, how can I ensure ''performance'' mother board? will any mother board that support i7 third generation processor do? i'm looking at the i7-3770K Processor.

Over clocking the processor, is that necessary for running, lets say, four automated strategies and all that is required for running automated strategies?

 

[Andiroo]

All

Any current off-the-shelf PCs in microcenter at discount prices which you think make the cut or do i need to go for a custom build.

No algo trading but need a trading workhorse to reliably run and power 2 to 4 monitors.

Arb

 

[apdxyk]

Over clocking the processor, is that necessary for running, lets say, four automated strategies and all that is required for running automated strategies?

Overclocking used to cause a lot of random errors in compilers' output. Every UNIX coder learned this hard way years ago. Regular users would rarely notice this effect though. The only situation when this is funny is when you blame your trading software for giving you different results for back-testing your strategies every time you run those.

You need stability, speed is already built in an average box of today. The only productive mod worth the expense is maxing out on RAM.

Otherwise, run clusters.. or code your own neat and tight stuff for GPU (Bitcoin mods)

Overclocking is for low information losers

 

[comingkingofisrael]

Don't forget to clean it occasionally!
Even a thin coating of dust can cause problems as I discovered.If you can't find out what's wrong,clean it first.There are youtubes about it: compressed air, Isopropyl(sp?) alcohol at greater than 90% etc.(I only blew it out with one 300ml can of air) and that cured everything.If you get beeps,take out the memory and if the beep changes,you know it's looking for a problem.