Recommendations for 6 screen computer system? DigitalTigers or Naplestech reviews?

Hey brother Boli, the guy with the most wonderfully wacked trading room this side of Hunter S. Wonka's Magical Funkadelia Tour, don't tell me you built one computer to feed your 20 monitors?

Much thanks for the comprehensive email. As inept as I feel regarding making my own computer, I have gotten a few useful PMs from some kind ETs that like you, are telling me how easy and economical it is to do so I am now leaning towards a future of learning a new skill and saving some scratch.
Then again, you say it is most economical to buy out of the box but maybe not if you have to feed 6 (or 20) monitors, correct?

If you don't mind, how much did it cost you to put yours together and is it really so simple? I guess my primary concern with building it myself is that there is no tech. support to call, not that i have called them in years but IF i didn't put one little wire together correctly...

If I get enough guidance, I will find the time to try it myself. Otherwise, I will have to check out one from zenview, naplestech or multi-monitors.com or perhaps a slightly used one I have been inquiring about.

Thanks again and best of luck trading.


Quote from Bolimomo:

Recently I had built one computer from parts myself. Intel i7 930 processor, 12GB RAM. About $1200 (not including Windows OS). On top of that add 3 PCIeX16 graphic cards to drive 6 monitors. Each card was about $50.

It is not that difficult to put one together. But if you want to buy something right off the box (which is more economical usually)...

I suggest that you can start with picking the processor first. (Or the grade of the processor like i7 or i5 or i3 or the AMD series) Because that is crucial to whether your computer can handle the load you expect to put on it. Then figure out how much RAM to have (probably 4GB to 6GB these days).

The final but the most crucial element: how many open slots does that computer have (and what kind)?

That will help you short-list the desirable makes/models.

All the new boxes that I looked at (HP, Acer, Toshiba, etc.) only offer 1 or 2 open PCIeX16 slots. If you plan to buy 3 of the PCIeX16 video cards (dual monitor for each), then you would not have enough slots. Unless you buy some of those 4 in 1 or 6 in 1 video cards, which are more expensive.

It's been mentioned before that a Dell T3500 would be a good trading computer. I have not used it before so I don't have any direct experience. My experience has been with HP/Compaq and I like them, except that they don't provide enough PCIeX16 slots (which is why I decided to build my own).
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Quote from Surdo:



More than two/three screens is a waste of time and just an extenson of your pinga.
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Are you referring to some new form of jelqing, somehow using the monitors to massage and milk, thus extend?
 
Quote from tortoise:

To the best of my knowledge, there's no "splitting of resources" under boot camp. The Mac boots to Windows; it's as if the crappy Mac OS doesn't exist. In any event, I've been beating the shit out of this box for the last eight weeks, without a hitch.

FWIW, a Mac Pro will run up to eight monitors.
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Thanks for the info and it very well may be that i just happened to split the hard drive because it was recommended on the internet in my "how to boot camp" initiation, even though i never use the leopard OS.
Just wondering, how would i run 8 monitors from my Mac? Would it require an adapter of some sort and if so, what type do you suggest?
 
Quotes from Myshkin:

>>> don't tell me you built one computer to feed your 20 monitors?

No I don't think I have ever eluded to that. I drive 20 monitors from 4 different computers. 3 desktops (6 monitors each) and 1 laptop (2 external monitors). Plus the laptop itself, I have 21 screens. And I am working on adding 3 more.

From my past experience, 6 screenfuls of TradeStation charts processed by one computer pretty much run against the CPU saturation point. But that was based on a slower processor AMD Athlon 64 dual core 4800+ 2.5 GHz (benchmark rank: 1255). On my newer computer, Intel i7 930 2.8 GHz (benchmark rank: 5908) it can at least handle 10 monitors. I suppose if I put in some of those 4-in-1 or 6-in-1 video cards I can drive more screens from the same box. But I also use multiple desktops for redundancy reasons.

To the critics, I do use all 21 screens. Every one of them. How I use them is nobody's business. I don't need to justify to nobody.

Do what works for you. Keep an open mind and be receptive to inspirations by others. Determine for yourself whether more screens will help you or not. For those who trade on just an I-phone, I have nothing but utmost admirations.


>>> Then again, you say it is most economical to buy out of the box but maybe not if you have to feed 6 (or 20) monitors, correct?

In general, yes. It's the "economy of scale" principle. Building your own car from parts generally cost more than buying one from a car manufacturer.



>>> If you don't mind, how much did it cost you to put yours together and is it really so simple?

I posted earlier, I spent about $1200 to buy the parts. (Plus $150 for 3 video cards). Plus my time spent putting everything together. About 4 hours. This is not including the Windows OS because I reused my XP Home. I am working on getting Windows 7 64-bit.

>>> I guess my primary concern with building it myself is that there is no tech. support to call, not that i have called them in years but IF i didn't put one little wire together correctly...

There might be a solution for you. In my area, Fry's Electronics offers building your custom PC for about $100. If you don't want to spend the time or risk plugging in the wrong wires to the wrong sockets. You buy the parts custom to your need at their store and they put it all together for you. They would install the Windows OS too for some additional cost.

Maybe there are some PC retail stores near you who will do the same?
 
Quote from Myshkin:

Thanks for the info and it very well may be that i just happened to split the hard drive because it was recommended on the internet in my "how to boot camp" initiation, even though i never use the leopard OS.
Just wondering, how would i run 8 monitors from my Mac? Would it require an adapter of some sort and if so, what type do you suggest?
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A Mac Pro will accept four video cards with two monitor connections each = 8 monitors.

It's the best damn computer I've ever owned or used.
 
Quote from Scataphagos:

Interesting... $2899, with 1-year warranty.

A T3500 with apparently same CPU and similar X58 mobo (plus 3-year warrranty) could be had for $859 from Dell Outlet.

Other than the debatable "Apple is better, Dell is crap" argument, why would somebody buy this Mac for an extra $2,000?
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i don't think dell is crap. i've had nothing but good experiences with my dells.

1) my mac pro has dual quad-core nehalems. the dell doesn't offer that configuration.

2) the dell is butt-ugly. i would be forced to hide it under a blanket or something, resulting in heat stress on the components, thus reducing its reliability/life span :eek:


hope this helps
 
Quote from tortoise:

i don't think dell is crap. i've had nothing but good experiences with my dells.

1) my mac pro has dual quad-core nehalems. the dell doesn't offer that configuration.

2) the dell is butt-ugly. i would be forced to hide it under a blanket or something, resulting in heat stress on the components, thus reducing its reliability/life span :eek:


hope this helps
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Butt ugly! LOL.

Actually, Dell does have dual quadcore available... Xeons.. in Precision line.

However, I was asking why someone would pay 3X as much for essentially the same machine?
 
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