vmodus 

I am not a big fan of these threads (as I write my third reply here), but I will say that a gaming build is better if you game and trade on the same PC, but not if you just trade. On my current build, I opted for a graphics card that is designed for driving lots of monitors (NVidia Quadro P620), which is marketed to finance sectors, but does not handle intensive 3D rendering (or other GPU heavy tasks) all that well, that a good gaming rig would need. It is quiet, low power, and drives my displays with easy. Just a thought.

I've recently been getting into this whole low power SFF PC thing. My solution to many monitors (more than 3) is to add a second card, but your solution is cheaper on hardware and consumes less power. And is (I think) low profile to fit in SFF. Nice.

For the moment, I ascribe the philosophy that more than 3 monitors causes me to watch too many things.

Sidenote, I recently purchased an x86 single board computer that is more or less powerful enough for a basic desktop and consumes about 15w total. Odyssey x86 (J4105). Really not adequate for a trading PC but you can hook a PCIe card through the m.2 slot (w the right connector) and plug a discrete GPU. I will never do that. Also has a slot for a cellular module and SIM card, which I guess I could use in a network failover application. I got it just to build a pfSense box. I'm stoked.

Hi. For me, the answer was two fold. I needed a blazing fast computer, but I also needed a super quick internet line. I opted not to build a computer from scratch but to buy a custom built Lenovo gaming computer from an Amazon vendor. The hardware is very fast, runs on a 6 core i7, supports up to 6 monitors (I have 4 35 inch), tons of memory, 2 disks (one solid state and one 4 TB) plus I have a separate rack for six more disks. For the internet line I do not like cable. I actually live near the Facebook campus in Northern California. My block has 13 houses and at least ten work from home. Cable internet here is more like an old school dial-up line. I went with a DSL line that gives me between 95 and 100 Mbps down and 20 to 22 Mbps up every hour of every day. I guess the only downside is the heat from the i7. I MAY have to go for water cooling. You put that i7 to work and you get a lot done but those fans can ger pretty loud, no hum, just a lot of air blowing.

Do we really needed these hi tech machine to run trading software ?

I use dell laptop older one with splash top and no issues so far


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MiniP 

Curious who has built a trading specific desktop? I am looking at building one here in the next few months, maybe wait until black friday and load up then as I am in no rush. For those of you who built these trading focused pc's any recommendations ? I am not looking to spend thousands on a computer, I've have used an HP for the past few years and it works great, the only reason for an upgrade is because I am doing more and more with different platforms and at times it could be a little faster. lets see some pics/recommendations note: I do use three monitors 1 27" and 2 32" if this should be in the battle stations thread then let me know -P

This is going to hurt people. But reality check

This thread has became a battle of ego power on computer knowledge.

Let's go down to the basic. As much as I want to recommend a decent machine or beast. Trading is about making money. If you are safely making money consistently. Invest in a beast and nothing will go wrong with a powerful system that you do not want to crash when you have alot of contracts on the skin. I know I cannot imagine if that happens to me for one. Each crash will cost you more money than you can imagine. If you are not there yet? It does not matter what machine you are using. Trade demo on a laptop for 1 instrument. It will not crash even if you are using a few years old system. I was using a i7 back from 2013 16gb ram. Hook to a 29inch monitor. It's perfect. My entry and exit is the thing I want to invest. When I am making consistent money. Buying a $3k system is no brainer.

People are too hang up with gadgets and stuff.. progress as you grow. Even the best tools will never bring you the money. Yes a little abit of edge on speed. But hack 1 contract will not make big difference. Once u hit a few contracts on high speed trading. Then it's a must. Get single thread i910900k. Data feed come in on single thread. You need it to compute fast to reach you eyes. If you are fast in reaction. It will help with all this. If you trade without being alert most of the time. You do not need this. I am saying if you are a high speed high contracts trader. If you are swing trader or slow trader. Get a normal PC you will be fine. Save the money for better things in life. That's why we are trading! Make money for things we all thought want.

Really all depends on who you are. Everyone comment here trades different markets and experience.

I just want to be very direct with you. So you will not waste money. Only you will know who you are. Hope I had shred some light for you.

Ironic

Vidda 

This is going to hurt people. But reality check This thread has became a battle of ego power on computer knowledge. Let's go down to the basic. As much as I want to recommend a decent machine or beast. Trading is about making money. If you are safely making money consistently. Invest in a beast and nothing will go wrong with a powerful system that you do not want to crash when you have alot of contracts on the skin. I know I cannot imagine if that happens to me for one. Each crash will cost you more money than you can imagine. If you are not there yet? It does not matter what machine you are using. Trade demo on a laptop for 1 instrument. It will not crash even if you are using a few years old system. I was using a i7 back from 2013 16gb ram. Hook to a 29inch monitor. It's perfect. My entry and exit is the thing I want to invest. When I am making consistent money. Buying a $3k system is no brainer. People are too hang up with gadgets and stuff.. progress as you grow. Even the best tools will never bring you the money. Yes a little abit of edge on speed. But hack 1 contract will not make big difference. Once u hit a few contracts on high speed trading. Then it's a must. Get single thread i910900k. Data feed come in on single thread. You need it to compute fast to reach you eyes. If you are fast in reaction. It will help with all this. If you trade without being alert most of the time. You do not need this. I am saying if you are a high speed high contracts trader. If you are swing trader or slow trader. Get a normal PC you will be fine. Save the money for better things in life. That's why we are trading! Make money for things we all thought want. Really all depends on who you are. Everyone comment here trades different markets and experience. I just want to be very direct with you. So you will not waste money. Only you will know who you are. Hope I had shred some light for you.

fivewhy 

I've recently been getting into this whole low power SFF PC thing. My solution to many monitors (more than 3) is to add a second card, but your solution is cheaper on hardware and consumes less power. And is (I think) low profile to fit in SFF. Nice. For the moment, I ascribe the philosophy that more than 3 monitors causes me to watch too many things. Sidenote, I recently purchased an x86 single board computer that is more or less powerful enough for a basic desktop and consumes about 15w total. Odyssey x86 (J4105). Really not adequate for a trading PC but you can hook a PCIe card through the m.2 slot (w the right connector) and plug a discrete GPU. I will never do that. Also has a slot for a cellular module and SIM card, which I guess I could use in a network failover application. I got it just to build a pfSense box. I'm stoked.

My use of three monitors comes not so much from trading, but that I do something different on each screen. I have clients that are not part of my trading life, so I may do some client work on one or two screens, and then trading application on a third.

I now do all my trading exclusively on an Azure virtual machine and access via Remote Desktop, so I can keep that minimized while the 'robots' run. It utilizes all three screens when maximized, though I still only use one monitor. Excel is usually on a second, in this case.

The Odyssey board is interesting, though as you mentioned a touch underpowered. I am intrigued by nano form factor. Thanks for sharing!

MiniP 

Curious who has built a trading specific desktop? I am looking at building one here in the next few months, maybe wait until black friday and load up then as I am in no rush. For those of you who built these trading focused pc's any recommendations ? I am not looking to spend thousands on a computer, I've have used an HP for the past few years and it works great, the only reason for an upgrade is because I am doing more and more with different platforms and at times it could be a little faster. lets see some pics/recommendations note: I do use three monitors 1 27" and 2 32" if this should be in the battle stations thread then let me know -P

After checking out many of the same recommendations some have suggested on this thread, I personally have enjoyed the folks at magicmicro (dot you know what). Not able show the link, but that's the company.

For a $1000.00 or less you can have them assemble what you want. They will make suggestions if you mismatch components. Here is what I plan to buy myself. I only need 2 monitors, but want to be able to add 2 more if I feel inclined. Hope you find this useful.

AMD Ryzen 5 Barebones #2
Cougar MX330-XBlack Mid Tower ATX Case , side window w/ Front USB 3.0
Dual Case Fans 120 mm Extra Quiet DC fan (two fans)
AMD RYZEN 5 3600X 6-Core 3.8GHz (4.4GHz Turbo)
Coolermaster Hyper 212, 4 Copper Heat Pipes, Extra Quiet CPU fan
MSI PRO B450M PRO-VDH MAX AM4, DDR4, USB 3.1, GB LAN
32GB (2x16GB) PC4-25600 DDR4 3200MHz Dual Channel
AMD Radeon RX 550 2GB PCI Express 16x dual head Display Port, HDMI
500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO m.2 Solid State Drive, NVMe PCI-Express 3.0, 3400MB/s
All-in-One Memory Card Reader Internal Black
Realtek HD digital audio (onboard)
Ethernet network adapter 10/100/1000 (onboard)
Thermaltake 500W ultra quiet ATX Power Supply, SLI & X-fire ready
Microsoft Windows 10 64-Bit DVD
Standard assembly and test 3-5 business days

-$200.00
$1294.00
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Price after savings : $1094.00
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customize and buy

I just had built my trading computer (used only for trading) about 6 months ago. I am running this computer on 3 32" Dell S3219D monitors. Here is what I got built.

W-4 - W-4 Workstation Desktop PC
Case Trevor Pro Legacy Edition -
Trevor Pro Legacy Edition

Motherboard MSI MEG Z390 ACE -
Processor INTEL CORE i9 9900k 8C/16T 5.0GHz -
INTEL CORE i9 9900k 8C/16T 5.0GHz

Processor OC
Overclock Processor -

Memory DDR4 3200MHz G.SKILL Trident Z RGB- 16GB -

Power Supply Seasonic FOCUS PLUS 850W GOLD -
Gold Rated. Fully modular cabling, and optimized for silence.

Graphics Card AMD RADEON RX 5700 8GB GDDR6

Samsung 970 PRO 512GB NVME M.2 SSD -3,500MB/s Seq. Read 2,300MB/s Seq. Write

HDD/SSD Western Digital Blue 1TB - 7200RPM 3.5" HDD -

CPU Cooling
Alphacool Eisbaer 360MM Liquid cooler -

*Highly recommended for overclocking. Will only work in Artem series, Leviathan, Lucent, Glacier, Legato, Umbra

OS Windows 10 Home Premium 64-Bit -

You may want to look at Xidax computers. They offer a lifetime warranty. I had them build my Ryzen 9 3950x this past March. I run NT7 and NT8 so I needed a workhorse.


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I forgot to mention in my post that I had my computer built with Xidax. They were very knowledgeable and worked with me to help me build my computer.