Quote from Hamlet:
You just answered your own question.
Most traders are not techs.
Can you give us more details about your setup, it sounds interesting. Do you use a station with a kvm to control everything? I just did some reading on kvm extenders, which I had never heard of before, and if they work the way I imagine they do it sounds pretty awesome.
I think another obstacle is that traders use multiple monitor setups, some as much 6-10 monitors. I would imagine this makes things more complicated?
That's sort of the reason for the thread. To try to help through some of the anxiety associated with these types of machines. They really are not that difficult.
I have a three rack setup. One major one for the business. One for my new Internet venture (coming, Dell 6650 with Quad 3.16 GHz processors). A third for the personal stuff. The personal systems rack would easily do for most traders. It is a multi-machine setup with standalone abilities. I'll describe it.
I have an Internet surfing/e-mail server (Dell 6300) with four 550MHz P3 processors and 4 gigs of RAM. It has a wireless card and 10 hard drives (2 - 18 gig, 8 - 73 gig). This machine cost me $200 delivered. It came with four drives and I spent about another $250 adding the rest.
I have a database machine (Dell 4600). It has two Xeon 2.2 GHz processors, 4 gig's of RAM and 8 drives (2 - 36 gig and 6 - 146 gig). I traded with this machine (wireless) also. This puppy set me back $1,800.
Then I run a gaming and music server (wireless, Dell 6400). It has four P3 900MHz processors, 4 gig's of RAM and 10 drives (2 -36 gig and 8 - 73 gig). This one set me back $850 (drives included). It manages the home music center as well as all the host duties for Doom and Quake (various versions), Empire Earth, Age Of Empires, Railroad Tycoon, Open TTD (Transport Tycoon), and a few others for when the guys pop over.
All of these machines are connected to a KVM which allows me to switch between them. Up until three months ago I ran the four screen setup direct from my database machine and another screen did double duty for the Internet/e-mail and game/music server. With the coming move I have cut down to just two screens and eliminated the trading screen setup (I burned out for trading heavy for a while so off they went). I can still access the trading machine though for that occasional dabble. And, I use a wireless keyboard and mouse for the whole thing!
As for multiple screens, not complicated at all. The same cards for regular computers work in many of the servers. I believe I could easily configure for 10 monitors. Two of the machines run Windows 2003 Server (Enterprise Edition), the other Windows 2000 Server. This little Intranet is accessible/runable by any of my laptops also.
