Building a Trading Computer

Trading Tech and Tools
1

Okay, reconnecting with my inner geek…

Several of you have asked me about specs for building a powerful PC. While I do not claim to be an IT expert, I did recently build a trading workstation for myself, and am happy to share what worked and didn’t work for me.

Before we get started, for those of you who are outright terrified at the thought of digging inside a machine or building your own, I’d like to point out 3 companies who clearly lead the pre-built PC market:

Falcon Trading Systems designs systems specifically for traders and multiple-monitors:

Dell Inc. -
Known for the industry’s best warranty… 3-year next-day on-site, meaning if they can’t fix it over the phone for you, someone will ring your doorbell the following morning (and usually they give you a loaner PC if they need to take yours). Do look closely at their configuration options however, as their “default” systems aren’t always the best performers.

Alienware Computers -
Can’t go wrong with a gamer PC, they tend to be the fastest out there. Particularly attractive is their new notebook, for those who need mobility (without sacrificing power).

My Specs:
NZXT Apollo case
Netzteil Xilence 800watt power supply
ASUS Striker Extreme motherboard (powerful + cooling features, even internal working lights)
Intel Q6600 Quad Core CPU (2.40 GHz, 1.333 FSB) *
Arctic Freezer7 Pro cooling fan (Intel’s stock fan isn’t the best, it’s also loud)
4GB RAM (2x 2GB, CSX 800MHz CL5 DDR2)
XpertVision 8800GT Sonic (512MB) VGA adapter (I have 2, driving 4 monitors total) **
Samsung HD501LJ 500GB 7200rpm 16MB SATA hard drives (3 total - C: for system, D: for data, plus external back-up) ***
RaidSonic ICY Box IB-168SK-B (to make the back-up drive easily removable)
DVD Burner - LG GSA-H55N 18x (Samsung is more common, but has a driver bug which affects Steinberg software)
DVD Reader - LG GDR-H30N (I recommend a separate reader to save wear on your writing laser)
Black Manhattan internal card reader
TEAC floppy drive (I’m old school - and modern Windows versions no longer boot into DOS)
Windows XP Professional SP3 (stay away from “Home” versions, and Vista is a risk - though SP1 is certainly better)

Notes:

* This is no longer the fastest processor out there, however spending $500-800 more will only get you about 0.333 faster FSB (stands for front-side bus… don’t just look at processor speed, as most often the bottleneck is in the throughput, how fast the data can be moved rather than processed). The Q6600 still remains in my opinion the best price/performance value, and if you ever need more power the “latest & greatest” still use the same socket configuration, meaning an upgrade takes 5 minutes (and will cost you less than half a year from now). I would not recommend AMD - at one point they had better products than Intel, but not this generation.

** The XpertVision is a slightly faster over-clocked version of the well-known NVidia 8800GT card. If you go with XpertVision, be sure to get their “Sonic” version. Since I built my PC, a whole new generation of graphics cards have been released, including the 9000-series and the NVidia Quadro FX 4700 X2, which supports 4 monitors with a single card . Chris from TopGun Software seems to prefer ATI, however admits this has more to do with price rather than any specific performance feature. Whichever card you choose, make sure you download new drivers from the manufacturer’s website at least once per month.

*** I’m very disappointed in this purchase and would not recommend Samsung drives. I simply went with the shop’s recommendation - they told me I could save a lot of money. Well, you get what you pay for. I experienced a (hardware) drive failure when my system was only 4 months old! For over 10 years now, I have been using Seagate Barracuda drives, and have yet to have one fail (and, yes, I do still occasionally boot the older machines up - mainly when testing automated trading systems). Will never again buy any other drive. I would recommend staying away from both WesternDigital and Maxtor, as I have known both to fail fairly young into their service lives in the past, and WD’s customer support is probably the worst out there. No need to go beyond 7200rpm - unless you intend to edit feature films - it only creates more noise, heat, and friction (drive wear).

Now that you’ve got your system put together, don’t overlook security and stability! I personally run anti-virus and anti-spyware software, plus both a software and a hardware firewall (most routers these days include strong firewall features, and I absolutely recommend sticking one in between your modem and your PC, even if you have no need to share the Internet connection).

Symantec/Norton is probably the most well-known name in anti-virus protection, however I recently read a press release where they admitted their products include a back-door to accommodate government snooping on our hard drives (and these days no warrant is needed to do so). Plus my experience with back-doors is that it doesn’t take long before governments aren’t the only ones aware of them. I have been using Sophos and SpySweeper to this point quite successfully, however the new version of Webroot’s firewall seems to have a bug requiring occasional re-installs (mostly when you install new software). After the last round of tests & reviews, I am leading towards giving BitDefender a try.

Most compare these products based upon the size of their “known threat” databases, however what I feel is far more important is the ability to adapt to new threats (often called “zero day” threats), plus how well they do at finding root-kits (the hardest of all threats to detect). The amount of both incidents and kinds of threats have grown exponentially in recent years, so do not underestimate the danger. Also keep in mind that the more you visit financial websites, the more of a tempting target you potentially become for hackers.

Lastly, a few words about back-ups and disaster recovery. First of all, I absolutely insist that you use two drives - keep your programs and your data separate (physically separate, partitions do not count). This way if your computer ever dies, you can easily move your data to another (plus most viruses are programmed to seek out and attack the C: drive). The easiest way to back-up your hard drive is to create a drive image, this way you will not have to re-install all your software when you restore. My favourite tool for this is Acronis True Image . In addition, I like to have a copy of all my individual files on an external drive, and I use SmartSync Pro to accomplish this . Both images and the file copies reside on a drive I can easily remove (thanks to the RaidSonic ICY Box IB-168SK-B) and store off-site. Also, keep in mind that in the event of a fire, you will most likely have no time or interest in climbing under your desk to mess with disconnecting cables (the idea is to save the data, the PC can be replaced).

Trading software is notorious for fragmenting hard drives - this is due the amount of raw data they pull down and then re-calculate every single second to plot your indicators. I recommend running a defrag on your system drive at least once a week, and on your data drive about once a month. The defrag software which comes with Windows is not enough - PerfectDisk from Raxco Software will do a far more thorough job. If your trading software (especially MetaTrader) continues to act slow following a defrag (most noticeable when you change timeframes), then try uninstalling and re-installing the software.

All three pieces of software have really nice automation and scheduling features, so keeping your data safe will not occupy a lot of your time or attention once you get everything set up correctly.

There is another, more automatic alternative to drive imaging known as RAID, but not all RAIDs are created equal. RAID1 (otherwise known as “drive mirroring”), for example, works fine in most situations, but especially when it comes to trading software (due to the frequency of C: writes) has been known to create some slow-down. RAID5, on the other hand, not only does mirroring, but also adds redundancy and a performance boost (since a multiple-Core PC can read from all the drives simultaneously). However keeping in mind that you want to keep your programs and data on separate drives, you would be looking at a minimum of 6 drives to get this set up properly (and that’s not yet counting any external back-ups).

Basically, if a drive ever fails in a RAID5 configuration, you simply yank it out and replace it with a new one - and the RAID array is automatically re-built the next time you reboot. NO downtime at all. This is the way most corporate servers are built. Keeping this in mind, you may also want the drives to be easily removable - to do this you will need several RaidSonic ICY Boxes, and also a tall tower case which has more bays than the NZXT Apollo does (8-9 perhaps… 6 drives, 2 DVD players, plus an external/removable back-up).

If you are considering using RAID, make sure you have a motherboard which has a dedicated controller chip to support this (the ASUS Striker Extreme does) - do not use the Windows software RAID, it will cause slow-downs.

Now, before you sit back and congratulate yourself on having the fastest PC out there, I just wanted to point out that NVidia recently unveiled their Tesla line… which can be configured with up to 240 cores and 64 monitors. However most of us are only trading oil, not digging for it. :slight_smile:

Hope this helps!

Black Knight

2

That’s a good setup, although you shouldn’t automatically assume that a gaming PC is automatically great for anything else. You should make sure it has a fast L2 cache and remember the speed is always given by the slowest component.

3

Hmmmmmm.

Very nice computer - much better than mine. :smiley:

However, what to do if you want to use a laptop.

There are 2 laptops I like - the 20" Dell or the 20" Hewlett Packard!!

They are bigggggg laptops!! :smiley: :smiley:

4

I run Windows via Parallels on my Mac Book Pro and reach my VPN as well with it.

I’m quite content with it. Not sure how a gaming computer is going to improve trading at all.

5

Absolutely… great point, outspan. I didn’t pick my components because they were “gamer”, simply because they either had features I wanted or because I liked the price/performance ratio. The slowest component is always where the bottleneck happens - that’s why I think it’s important to take more than just the CPU sppeed into account. You’re absolutely right about that.

tymen1… laptops are OK in a pinch, when you need to travel, but I find it tricky to trade on a signle screen.

Good trading all,

Black Knight
fxKnight.com

6

I have read a bunch of articles on this subject and I find them amusing. Most suggest you cannot possibly trade without having a V8 440 cubic inch engine under the hood! lol Not true.

I have 10 computers (former network administrator and technician now a full time real estate agent) at home. I have one trading computer running two 22" LCD screens. The processor is an older AMD 4400+ Socket 939 with 2 GB DDR 3200 Ram inside. Everything I have done on it so far runs just fine!

OK…here we go.

[B]CONTEXT -[/B]
I am only going to refer to a trading computer. If you want an all-in-one do everything system for gaming and recording television…too bad. That is a whole other topic that could be debated for years! lol

Also, I am only going to speak from the WINDOWS perspective. I am a HUGE Linux fan, but it is not realistic in the trading world without complicating things.

Finally, I will not discuss laptops in this post. Each laptop brand maker is unique and some might be great on power but have lousy battery life. They are very proprietary in features! That is why you cannot easily or cheaply build your own laptop.

[B] THE SETUP[/B]
Here is what I will suggest as a few general rules for others to follow.

Unless you are doing HEAVY number crunching, back testing an average $600 to $800 system from a major retailer should do just fine with a few caveats!

[B]THE PROCESSOR[/B]
Never…I repeat…NEVER buy a system with a small cache processor. The INTEL CELERON and the AMD SEMPRON are utterly worthless in my opinion. You might save $50 but you compromise so much speed, power and future growth. DON’T DO IT! Get a full fledged dual core processor.

[B]MEMORY[/B]
It is sooooooooooooooo cheap these days get at least 2 gigabytes of RAM. Buy a system with 2GB in it. It will be cheaper than buying it and upgrading later.

[B]HARD DRIVES[/B]
I recommend 2 separate hard drives. Your system will probably come with only one. You should add another. You can either add one to the inside, buy and add an external USB/eSATA drive or you could use a backup device like a NAS (network attached storage). More on that later.

How much space do you need? It depends on you. I have a primary hard drive of 500GB and a secondary of 750GB. All divided up into partitions for reasons I will not even get into here. I recommend Seagate or Western Digital brand. Samsung hard drives are fine (they are reliable and a quality brand), but I find them to be generally slower than the others.

[B]OPERATING SYSTEM[/B]
Windows XP is fine if you already have a license. If you do not, I would recommend Vista Home PREMIUM.
Yeah, yeah…I can hear the moans now. Well, guess what folks…Microsoft is going to put XP on the back burner…which means problems, security issues, etc. will still be worked on but Vista will get priority. When 98 came out, 95 got ignored. When 98se came out, 98 literally was forgotten! When XP came out, 98se got ignored and Millenium was shoved in the basement and never spoken of again. In fact…no one is even sure if it really existing!! lol So on and so on it will go.

I have been using Vista since ALPHA and I was a beta tester. I have it running on all 10 of my machines. I also use VMWARE to create virtual computers for testing. I have had no problems with over 15 different demo trading platforms from Dealbook 360 to Oanda to FXCM to Ninja Trader to MT4 to TradeStation…well, you get the idea.

If you are the forward thinking type…Vista is your boy. But again…XP or Vista will be fine.

[B]VIDEO[/B]
An off the shelf cheapy system will NOT have the greatest video capability and may not have the ability to upgrade later!
We have 2 things to consider here. Do you want dual monitors? You will need 1 video card with dual ports. Quad monitors? You will need 2 video cards each with dual ports. Of course, you will need a PC system capable of adding one or two video cards.
Example - two 22" monitor setup.
You will need a nice, basic video card. I would recommend an Nvidia based 8600 card with dual DVI ports. These usually run about $60. Not bad huh? There are better, more expensive options if you desire…but not necessary.

[B]POWER SUPPLY[/B]
You don’t need anything monstrous or expensive. If you are buying an off the shelf system…it might have a whimpy power supply. I would recommend making sure it has at least 500 watts or more or that you buy and replace the stock system with a power supply of 500w or higher. Again…if you buy your own…don’t go cheap and generic. Get a solid brand name like Antec. Would you put a VW Beetle engine in a Ford Mustang?

[B]MONITORS[/B]
Your system may or may not come with a nice monitor. If not…here is my advice.

Totally up to you what you want but DON’T GO CHEAP!!! You can get a really NICE one online for $200 to $300. And get a good warranty! I would go to a local store to SEE the monitors first hand to experience the differences in quality if you are not familiar as I am. Finally…you MUST buy from a place that guarantees return if you find even 1 dead pixel upon first use!
My example -
I bought 2 Acer P223W’s. These are digital, GORGEOUS 22" LCD monitors. I could have bought them from any number of online retailers…but most will NOT return or exchange the item unless it has at least 8 dead pixels! Can you imagine having spent $300 only to have a dead pixel right in the center of your brand new monitor and there is nothing you can do about it!?

TigerDirect dot com has a 2 weeks guarantee against even 1 dead pixel. My 2 monitors were fine but the one I bought for my father had 1 dead pixel. TigerDirect exchanged it immediately. I do not always find the best prices there…but that guarantee is why I always buy my monitors from them.

Stats wise - I would NOT buy less than this -
19" or bigger.
Offers at least 1600 x 1050 or better.
Contrast Ratio of 1000 or higher.
WideScreen is a must in my opinion and typical these days.
I would recommend DVI (digital) over (DB 9 ) Analog connections. DVI gives you a true, crisper, clearer digital picture. Analog gives you a converted signal. YUCK!
Minimum of 1 year warranty. My ACER brand offers 3 years.

[B]STORAGE[/B]
Getting back to hard drive space, backing up, etc. I would recommend getting an external NAS device. NAS stands for Network Attached Storage. A hard drive in a box that can attach to your network switch or router via a Cat5/6 cable. I simple modest one would be the BUFFALO LS-320GL 320GB LinkStation Pro. It offers security/password features and many other neat extras, a single hard drive of 320GB of space which is fine for many. (I have a monster of a NAS device that stores over 2 TB of data redundantly over 4 hard drives)

It is well worth investing some money in a NAS that has 2 hard drives or more that can be configured in a RAID 1 mode. Say you have a NAS device with 2 hard drives in it. RAID 1 mode means your data is duplicated from one hard drive to the other hard drive in the NAS. If one hard drive dies, the other has all your data on it and you are saved!

Your NAS can be used as a mini server to share files, backing up, etc. The limits are your imagination.

[B]SURGE PROTECTION[/B]

1st PARTIAL solution - You can have an electrician install a complete home surge protection unit in your electrical box for about $150. That solves the surge protection issue but does not cover something else. In many cases that can be better than buying 20 different surge protectors and having them laying all over the floor everywhere getting in the way.

2nd TOTAL SOLUTION -
Soooooooooo many people over look this and buy some cheap piece of junk and think it will save them. Don’t do that! And DON’T plug a surge protector into another surge protector! They cannot be daisy chained and will cause you problem instead of preventing them!

THE ONLY company I recommend is APC.
1 - They really do honor their warranty and will FedEx you replacements overnight!
2 - They really do honor their insurance policy promise to you!
3 - Their customer service is among the highest rated in the nation(USA)!
4 - Their products are high quality, fairly priced and long lasting!

Now, let’s discuss surge protection versus UPS (uninterruptible power supply) aka BACK-UPS.
You can get a whimpy, measly surge protector that will protect you from electrical anomalies…or you can get that plus battery backup!

Yes, UPS’s can cost more. But here is the benefit. You are in the middle of a trade…suddenly…their is a surge or dip in power. With a surge protector…your computer shuts off…COLD! Bad for your trade and BAD for your computer equipment. Kind of like smacking it with a hammer. SERIOUSLY! I mean that! Data loss , registry corruption, damage to the hard drive platters…the list goes on and on. Then one day months later, your whole system goes whacky for some reason. You blame Microsoft of course…but they had nothing to do with it.

With an UPS…the battery kicks in before you even know what happened. Your computer is not running on the battery…safe, clean and you can continue with your trade…or not. How long can your PC run on battery power? It depends. How powerful is your system? How much energy does it consume? How powerful is your UPS unit?

Example -
An APC BACKUPS 750va can run my computer for 20 minutes before failure! But I never use it like that. I just close all my programs and shut down everything until the world is back to normal…and you should do the same!

The BACKUPS should have 2 sides. One side is strictly surge protection. Plug all NON ESSENTIALS into that side…like your lamp, radio, speakers, printers, etc.

The other side will be SURGE protection and BATTERY power. Only plug ESSENTIALS into the battery side of the UPS…like the PC and monitor. Things like laser printers, etc would suck the battery dry in 1 minute besides…who needs the laser printer if the power is about to go out.

If you need more BACKUPS protection…buy more of them ! Just plug them into their own outlet! No daisy chains! I have 4 under my main trading desk. 1 for my pc/monitors. 1 for my NAS device. 1 for my non essentials like lamps, radio, speakers. 1 dedicated to keeping my internet connection alive so my cable modem, router and 16 port gigabit switch.

Also, it is best to do both…surge protection in the electrical panel and the APC BACKUPS as needed. Even APC recommends that as a best practice.

If there are any other questions or thoughts I will be glad to respond to them outside of this post. I think I have typed enough for now. lol

I can gladly discuss software in another thread.

7

you cannot possibly trade without having a V8 440 cubic inch engine under the hood!

I never said anything of the sort. :slight_smile: In the end the trader makes the profits, and not the hardware (though MetaTrader will be the first software to “stick” if you are not properly tuned). Personally I got tired of tapping my fingers on my older machine, and wanted to invest in something which would last more than a year or two. I fully admit it is overkill. And I do use it for stuff besides trading - such as broadcasting webinars, recording training videos, etc.

Thank you so much for your reply & insights, Brian - very cool to have an IT pro in on this thread!

Black Knight
fxKnight.com

8

I never said anything of the sort. :slight_smile:

Quite true BK…but then…I never said you did say that. lol

However, I apologize if it seemed that way.

I am just amazed at how many articles I read in big magazines like Stocks & Commodities, Active Trader, etc. that make it seem like you need a huge CRAIG mainframe to calculate Pivot Points…lol

I rarely see an article that shows what a basic machine can do. Some people can easily use the old monster gaming rig their kids don’t like any more (because it is more than 12 months old and has a speck of dust on it…lol) and use that and it will probably have plenty of power left over.

9

Exactly, Brain… or on the importance of back-up/disaster recovery plans or routine disk maintenance. :wink:

Black Knight
fxKnight.com

10

IT being my primary field, I just have to comment. :slight_smile:

Laptop or desktop, it does not matter. What matters is what kind of trader you are. Do you want one monitor for each pair?? How about a monitor for news?? are you gonna look at this constantly, or is it once or twice a day?

If your going the absolute best of everything for your home, nothing beats server hardware for raw throughput. But if a high end gaming is overkill, a server would be launching a nuke to kill a cricket, and I don’t like crickets :slight_smile:

My trading system at home uses 2 QC processors a streaming news monitor, a monitor for my trade window, a monitor for my positions, a monitor for my charts and a central monitor for when I am not trading (IE looking up comics on google) That is quad SLI plus using the onboard. Getting the the displays seperate was tricky, but I will have to look up the driver software I have on it when I get home. (built for stocks not forex, will work just as well though)

Now this was my birthday and christmas and anniversary present for 2 years, but I got to build what I wanted. It litterally is my office, and I miss it /cry

As far as laptops go, I found that IBuypower.com has the best one. It has a desktop processor in it, but it is very heavy. Sorry I did not list specs of any of this, as I can’t look them up.

In short, go with what will work for you. Do you need a demon machine? no Do you want one? who doesn’t!!

11

Nice set up but honestly you don’t need all that stuff, you can build a pc for a 1k or EVEN LESS. Honestly I believe that you just wasted a lot of money if you are only using it for trading but its a pretty good gaming pc, but one thing that you are missing is a flux capacitor ha ha.

for you guys who would want to build a system on your own and are a little confused about which parts to get just go to

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/How-To,4/Build-Your-Own,16/

heres a link to a good less then a 1k sys

System Builder Marathon: Sub-$1000 PC : Cheap and Easy - Tom’s Hardware

a system for 1.3k if you are going to play the latest games on it and stuff

System Builder Marathon: Sub-$2000 PC : System Builder Marathon: Mid Range System - Tom’s Hardware

and if you go through that website you should be able to find comparison charts of different hardware, ie water cooling is great but you must be loaded to spend 200$ or so in order lower your pc temp by a FEW degrees. and guys windows vista is not that bad, I hated it only because people said it sucks but once i started using it I got to like if (after I disabled some pop ups and some other annoying things)

12

I can’t believe this thread appeared right in my face. I am actually trying to build my own computer to use for trading. I am looking in the extremely low range (I have a laptop) ~ $350. I actually have a broke-down computer so I can mixmatch parts I guess.

I just wanted to thank you guys for the links and the thread creator for his input. THANKS!

:smiley:

13

Yes, it does not take much to have a decent machine.

Some may not want to build their own like I do. If that is the case, most of the retail systems will do just fine. Go with a brand name like HP, Gateway, Dell. Make sure you do not buy a BUDGET processor with a small cache. Get a full blown processor. The store staff will be able to help you. And I would recommend buying in the $700 or more neighborhood. There is a reason other systems are cheaper…because they are budget models lacking in features, CPU power and expansion capability. And do not just go out and buy. Wait, compare, look for an excellent price from a good promotional sale! You can easily save $150. If it is a HOT sale…get there on the first day…EARLY! lol

Now, I recommend AMD processors for a few reasons.
1 - they are typically cheaper but just as good/fast as comparable Intel CPUs. 2 - Intel has a monopoly over the market and competition is important. AMD needs the business. They are the little guy. If AMD disappears…say goodbye to low prices, innovation and cutting edge technology on the desktop coming quickly if at all. Doubt me? Go ahead and read all the tech articles written by experts in the field giving their warnings about this!

14

I just did the upgrade to a mouse. What do ya think about that.

Seriously now. Nice thread.:slight_smile:

15

I’m so lost and confused in this buying process and I wanted to ask if anyone could look over the set up I have built on newegg.com.

Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 Wolfdale 2.53GHz 3MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor 119.99

1 GIGABYTE GA-EG31M-S2 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard $54.99

1 CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM Desktop Memory
$57.00

1 Western Digital Caviar SE16 640GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive $84.99

1 LG 20X DVD�R DVD Burner w/ SecurDisc Tech Black SATA Model GH20NS15 $23.99

1 XFX GeForce 9800 GT PVT98GYDLU Video Card $149.99

Logitech Black Cordless Desktop Laser
Prime Black 0.8mm SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case With 585W PSU
$59.99

Grand Total: $550.94

I might upgrade the RAM and maybe the processor (Intel Core2Quad Q6600 - 189.99). Maybe the motherboard also.

Is it safe/okay to order the monitors online? Or should I just buy the monitors from a BestBuy or something?

Edit:

I wanted Samsung monitors but I’m currently looking at this:

It’s an Acer and I’ve never used an Acer product…are they reliable?

16

My RULE OF THUMB IS…

If I can’t use the software and/or system on a standard DELL laptop and trade via WiFi from an internet cafe at a Mexican beach then the software/system is too complicated.

My degree is in computer science and I built computers BEFORE PCs existed. I don’t see the need for STATE OF THE ART technology for the average trader.

Ever hear of the term OVERKILL?

17

I have to agree with rumpled somewhat. If this is just for trading and nothing else, it is overkill. If you plan to play a game or two in your downtime, then second or third best will be an awsome computer at a decent price.

Poon, The micro atx mother board in a midtower case doesnt make any sense to me. I would get a standard motherboard, as there is more room to upgrade and the cost is not much more. For monitors, I swear by Viewsonic. They are excellent quality and decent priced. The only downfall I hav ehad with them is when they die they die, no resurection. Not at a decent replacement part cost anyway.

Rumpled, Baby was invented in the UK in 1948, Zuse’s Z3 (the worlds first programable computer) was built in 1941 in Germany… you sir, are very old!!

As a final note, look at what you want the capabilities of the computer to be. If it is just trading, you don’t need much. Since I am deployed I trade on a cheap laptop with an on board video card. I can even play older games on it. At home I want my computer to be able to run the world and still have enough juice left over for me to game on, so I bought the setup I mentioned earlier. If you need a reccomendation, let me know and I will point you in the right direction.

18

I’m not getting this computer solely for trading. I’m not a professional trader and I wouldn’t invest so much money just yet. Anyway, paythepipper, I was wondering if you had the time to look over and just throw in a few suggestions for my setup (over pm or a messenger service). I have my contacts in my profile. Thanks.

19

I built my own pc and stability was #1, speed no. I live in an area that used to be very unstable regarding lightning and electrical continuity so after a lot of reading, and a very, very limited budget, I bought a Celeron D cpu - again stability. I was advised by several to also buy an Intel mobo as they match better with their own cpu. I don’t know about that but I took the advice.

The area is better now as the nearby water tower has been grounded better so I would like something that boots faster. I think a reasonably priced Duo Core will do the job nicely as I’m not a gamer or spreadsheet fanatic. And I’m pretty sure I’m older than TRO (but not as smart.) d.

21

currently use GFT’s Dealbook 360 platform to trade from and I love it to bits. Has anybody here had any experience with the Windows based mobile software GFT supply for mobile phones and PDA’s?

If anyone has any experience with this mobile trading software I would love to hear about your thoughts.

If you currently use a Windows based PDA and could reccomend one please let me know.