Are $200 laptops released 2015/2016 good enough to run EA's on MT4?

Trading Systems Expert Advisors and Automated Trading
1

Hi

I’ve been dabbling with manual trading with a live account but I’ve been doing this all with the browser version of MT4 provided by brokers since I don’t have a Windows machine, and I didn’t want to bother installing Wine etc…

Now I want to try getting the real MT4 platform to try out all the stuff missing from the browser version, including the ability to program/use/purchase EA’s.

I was wondering if the $200 laptops of 2015 and 2016 with Atom/Celeron processors and 2GB ram that come with Windows 10 are good enough for manual trading and EA trading?

Laptops I’m referring to are
[B]HP Stream 11
Lenovo Ideapad 100s
Dell Inspiron 3000 (2016)
[/B]
On a related note, with comparable specs, I’m also curious on the performance of MT4 and MT4 with EA using the
[B]Intel Compute Stick 2nd Gen with Windows 10[/B] (2016) (atom based processor)

Any insight from users would be very helpful and appreciated.

Thank you

2

For backtesting - No

Running an EA live - Yes, depending on how many charts you have an EA running on.

My top spec macbook pro 15 inch retina started to get sluggish when i had tons of charts open with complex EAs on

3

for normal use, and trading i think it should be fine. (1-5 pairs windows)

If you intend to open more than 5 pairs with backtesting then i think you need a better one

4

I use an Asus EEEpc 701 (pre atom netbook) with a 2gb memory upgrade and it can handle 3 terminals trading 6 EAs each (18 total) on windows XP. I like it because the battery keeps the computer going should there be a short power outage.

For backtesting more CPU power is obviously better but for running EAs anything that can run windows XP or better will do.

5

my macbook air is also sluggish for backtesting. i run mt4 via a parallels virtual machine with XP…

6

An older laptop is not a problem, you just need to deal with the 2 speed bottlenecks for speed - internet connection and hard drive.

Don’t use wifi if you can avoid it, and change out your hard disk for a solid state SSD drive - performance increase is phenomenal.

If you are a little tech savvy you can search amazon or newegg, etc for the SSD and buy a copy of paragon software to copy your existing drive.

VROOOM!!!

7

Yup “old” think pads are pretty solid choices. Very easy to change parts and strong hardware.