Please Help Spec New Rig V2.0

HurricaneUS · Feb 26, 2013

Quote from ofthomas:

to illustrate something I had stated before, in terms of being driven by best bang for the buck... hands down, I would pay the extra $10 for the E5....

Precision T1650 $859
Processor: Intel Core i7-3770 Processor (8M, 3.4GHz w/HD4000 Graphics)
Genuine Windows 7 Professional
Dell Outlet Precision Fixed Workstation T1650, Standard Base Tower
500GB 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache
4GB, DDR3 UDIMM Memory, 1600MHz, Non-ECC (2 DIMMs)
16X DVD ROM Drive
1GB nVIDIA Quadro 600,Dual Monitor,1DP and 1DVI

Precision T3600 $869
Processor: Intel Xeon Four Core E5-1620 Processor (3.6GHz, 10M, Turbo)
Genuine Windows 7 Professional
Dell Outlet Precision Fixed Workstation T3600, 425W Tower
500GB 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache
4GB, DDR3 UDIMM Memory, 1600MHz, Non-ECC (2 DIMMs)
8X DVD ROM Drive
1 GB AMD FirePro V4900,3 Monitor

newb question here...why would you prefer the E5 over the i7?

ofthomas · Feb 26, 2013

Quote from HurricaneUS:

newb question here...why would you prefer the E5 over the i7?

overlooking bus, lithography, cache, power consumption, and other things that might or might not make a difference to you depending on how you use it... and that will be determined by your choice.... the most significant differences to you would be:

- bandwidth (Memory, PCI, etc.)
- reliability (ECC, etc.)

http://ark.intel.com/compare/65719,64621

and you can have multi-processor with the E5 class... more important if you are doing modeling and need maximum number of threads... otherwise, it is just bragging rights and nothing more...

ofthomas · Feb 26, 2013

also, when deciding which CPU, if you know what your application workload characteristics are like (single thread vs. multi-thread) you can use this benchmark as a baseline to help you choose..

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

mgabriel01 · Feb 26, 2013

Quote from HurricaneUS:

newb question here...why would you prefer the E5 over the i7?

IMHO this is about 400 bucks worth of hardware your trading application will probably never use
Unless you wrote the application yourself

justrading · Feb 26, 2013

Quote from mgabriel01:

IMHO this is about 400 bucks worth of hardware your trading application will probably never use
Unless you wrote the application yourself

Would it come into play with Excel modeling volatility surfaces or running Monte Carlo simulations?

justrading · Feb 26, 2013

Quote from ofthomas:

I personally prefer to spend a few more hundreds in quality product than to seek ultimate cost savings... I will always choose business line over consumer line of products... business has a 3-4 year lifecycle... as such the components need to last longer, also... many of the business assets are now leased.. to maximize profit better quality products are used mostly because the manufacturer does not want to service them as often... there are different tiers of business as well, but for the most part small and enterprise will be close in quality....

This probably explains why my Acer is proving to be more trouble than it is worth. Ah well, we live and learn.

Scataphagos, ofthomas, NoBias - thanks for the patience and for going to all that effort to help me, I'm sure others reading will find the advice useful too.

I have a tonne of info to digest and research to do before I can make any decisions, but off the cuff I'm thinking maybe get a ready built box for the main machine, use the Acer temporarily as the 2nd machine, and learn how to build one meantime. That way if I get stuck with the build, everything still moves along fine.

I like the idea of learning how to build, because then I can fix them myself and not be dependent on service centres that take forever.

mgabriel01 · Feb 26, 2013

Quote from justrading:

Would it come into play with Excel modeling volatility surfaces or running Monte Carlo simulations?

I think its better to keep simulations off the trading machine. (Again, IMHO)

The box I spec'd is a very effective trading machine for 400 bucks
I have built several on this spec for other traders - so far positive feedback.

I dont know much about Excel modeling volativity surfaces so I can's speak to that.

With other Excel work it matters alot how you code it. Using tables or CSE functions in Excel will grind any machine to a halt.

Pivots are more efficient but you cant do everything with Pivots

Monte Carlo simulation is sort of the same thing. I can wear out any box if I select a large enough # of simulations and a large enough # of trades per simulation.

just my 2 cents