You're ideal system under $3500

I

insidebuy

Hi,

I trade equities through Trade Station intraday a couple of years now.

I'm going to spend $3500 or less on a new system including minimum 2 monitors( 19's).
I'm not a tech guy although I understand more memory the better.

I'm looked at Dell and Alienware(I love the Hypersonic stuff but, out of range). Question is how would you configure your system in this price range?

1- After 1- gig of memory for trading how big a deal is it?

2- Are the liquid cooled machines that much better as far as longevity?

3-How important is hard drive size for daytrading?

4-How does 64-bit fit in to trading?

Would somebody configure your ideal system in this range.
Where would you put your focus (max memory, smaller or larger hardrive etc..) based on the type of trading I do?

Thanks! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!
:)
 
1- After 1- gig of memory for trading how big a deal is it?
not much

2- Are the liquid cooled machines that much better as far as longevity?
not much

3-How important is hard drive size for daytrading?
its not

4-How does 64-bit fit in to trading?
years away

Would somebody configure your ideal system in this range.
Where would you put your focus (max memory, smaller or larger hardrive etc..) based on the type of trading I do?

spend you money on monitors and a good internet connection.
 
Don't buy a gaming box. Dual-core AMD or Intel with 2GHz of RAM to support a few applications and broadband. Important to have at least a 450W PSU.

HP makes an excellent workstation with dual Xeon or Opteron procs:

http://h71016.www7.hp.com/dstore/Mi...=2091&BaseId=16985&oi=E9CED&BEID=19701&SBLID=

www.swt.com is a great workstation/server builder in TX. They build a nice dual-cpu workstation built on the Supermicro tower case or 1U, 2U server platforms. 650W PSU in the SWT as a $250 upgrade if you choose the SC743i-645 case:

http://www.swt.com/opteron1.html

I would give HP the advantage based upon the 3year onsite warranty. SWT is a better machine, but HP's warranty is awesome. I have a HP-branded Itronix GoBook3 that shipped with a bad battery. I called them on Monday morning and I had the battery on Tuesday.
 
Get the User interface figured out, first

Killer monitors.

Get 20" monitors for 700 each and then a stand for 300. That is 1700 right there. I use NEC NX series. Best bang for the buck IMHO.

Wireless keyboard and mouse. Finger printer reader.

That leave 1800 for a machine. Way overkill.

Go 1200 on a dell with a duel core with a 10000 RPM hard disk.

Then consider a redundant internet connetion. Duel DSL or DSL-Cable.

--Cheers
 
insidebuy,

You have the advantage of already using TradeStation so you can work a very simple thing out - how much memory do you need.

Start your PC in the morning, do a typical days work and then at the end of the day look at your 'Peak Commit Charge' (see attached picture) this will tell you roughly the maximum memory usage you had during the day. You can then ensure you buy enough memory without buying too much. (To get the Task Manager up on your PC press Ctrl-Alt-Del.)

The second most important thing is to buy the fastest processor you can afford. Again, because you use TS at present, you will know if you have any current problems. Maybe things don't react as fast as they should? Maybe at the open things slow down? etc. This will help you decide whether your current processor is OK or if you need to significantly improve on it.

Cheers
 

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Quote from Luto:

10000 RPM hard disk.

Then consider a redundant internet connetion. Dual DSL or DSL-Cable.

--Cheers
More...

The WD raptors are the 10k SATA disks, good stuff. I would go with a RAID 0 and two 10k disks or, better yet, two Seagate 73GB 15k SCSIs and an LSI controller.
 
Quote from mmillar:

insidebuy,

The second most important thing is to buy the fastest processor you can afford. Again, because you use TS at present, you will know if you have any current problems. Maybe things don't react as fast as they should? Maybe at the open things slow down? etc. This will help you decide whether your current processor is OK or if you need to significantly improve on it.

Cheers
More...

these things are nice if money is no object but it is seldom necessary to get the most expensive processor. 1 or 2 steps down from the fastest can save a lot of money and is more than you will ever need.
 
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