Hardware/CPU needed for X-Trader/X-Trader Pro?

C

chisel

I'm running X-Trader 6.x on a computer with an Athlon 1800 XP chip and the cpu maxes out when the T-notes start moving around. The ram usage never goes above 200mb and Xtrader is the only thing running on this machine. During nonfarm on Friday my machine pretty much froze until things settled down.

For a new machine, do I need dual processors or will a high-powered single chip do the job? If you're running X-Trader, what are your thoughts about this? I'm not running X-Trader Pro, but I want to build/buy a machine with enough hp to use it in the future.

I'd like to keep from upgrading again for at least 3 years if at all possible. I'm asking because I don't want to buy a high-powered single cpu machine only to find that it can't keep up with X-Trader/Pro. Also, do I need a speedy hard drive or will a 7200 rpm SATA do the job?

Thanks.
 
Recently there are so many threads on the issue that eSignal/TS/J-Trader (and even X-Trader) appear frozen....

If upgrading the hardware itself can solve the issue then it is relatively easy. But sometimes it is due to the datafeed and then this is a real problem.... esp X-trader is already one of the best out there but still there are so many reported cases of lagging.
 
I'm no expert but your hardware is probably not the issue. My dated setup was able to keep up with the action:

-CPU: 1.3 GHz with 640 MB of RAM
-Operating System: Windows XP
-Internet Connection: DSL 986.5 kbps
-Display: 17” monitor and 15” laptop connected via MaxiVista
-Graphic Card: NVIDIA GEFORCE 2MX/MX 400
-Charts: 6 eSignal Charts
-Trading Platform: Strategy Runner Lite
 
I am running X-Trader PRO on a 3.2 GHz/1GB RAM Intel Dell machine. Last year, I would have the system's CPU go to 100% quite often and couldn't figure out why. This is a trading only machine. I feed data from X-Trader into an Excel sheet and then that data is pasted back to the MD Trader window for each market.

I thought this was causing an issue. It turned out, I had a Market Explorer window open with a large number of products with various expirations running in the background. Once I removed this window and only showed the products I actually needed, the load on the CPU went back to normal (around 20%) even in fast markets. Additionally, I added rendezvous/TIBCO and X-Trader to the list of exceptions in my Windows Firewall. The current trading machine has no firewall since it is connected to a ptp T-1 and never sees internet traffic except on updates (the internet-based machines are firewalled).
 
I have a Market Explorer window open which feeds into Excel. I'll reduce the number of products/expirations to only the ones I need and see if that helps.

Thanks everyone!

Banjo,
Yes, X-Trader is multi-threaded.
 
Quote from chisel:

...
Banjo,
Yes, X-Trader is multi-threaded.
More...

That does not mean that it will divide the load over MULTIPLE PROCESSORS! Many threaded programs can't do this.
 
Quote from just21:

Have you read this? Everything you need to know to run xtrader.

http://tradingtechnologies.com/documents/7x-Requirements.pdf
More...

Thanks. Yes I have read it. While it's a good guideline, I wouldn't take it to the bank. E.g., it says the minimum recommended LCD monitor size is 19" (yet the maximum recommended resolution should be 1280x1024) while I'm using 15" just fine. It also says the minimum requirement for running X-Trader Pro is a dual P4 1.4 GHz machine while FT71 says he's running X-Trader Pro on a "3.2 GHz/1GB RAM Intel Dell machine." (See his post above.)

Thus my original question. I was just seeking opinions as to what computer setup works for most X-Trader users without breaking the bank.
 
Quote from nononsense:

That does not mean that it will divide the load over MULTIPLE PROCESSORS! Many threaded programs can't do this.
More...

P.4 from TT specs:

"TT applications are multithreaded, which means the Windows NT (Win 2000) kernel can load balance TT processes across multiple CPUs improving machine performance. However, this improvement is not linear. Because other non-CPU elements create a threshold, which limits performance improvement, you cannot expect to achieve a doubling of performance. Even though this threshold exists, there is enough of a performance improvement that TT recommends you use faster, multiple CPUs."
 
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