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After wanting to wait for SC to work on a Mac with Crossover I’ve decided to go ahead and use a PC.
I assume SC will work on all the new chips and hardware?
Also, is any brand more reliable than the others?
I use 2 chart books with 3 charts each and volume. I do have quite a few studies on some of the charts like (3)OHLC studies per chart, clock, (6) study Subgraph Reference, Time Line and Zig Zag study. Can anyone recommend processor, ram, SSD drive and anything else?
Thanks
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
Sierra Chart takes almost no resources. I'm running it on an old laptop -- I'm not sure how old, but probably around 10 years by now -- and it never has a problem.
You may get recommendations for very fast "trading computers," but I doubt that there would ever be a reason you would find it necessary, for SC at least.
I am sure that any modern PC will have more than enough speed and capacity to do well with SC. You did ask whether SC will run on current hardware, and the answer is simply that anything that runs Windows will run SC under Windows, so no concerns about that.
I will forego making recommendations, since I'm obviously not up to speed with current hardware ( ). But I think that any middle-range PC will be fine. If you're going to use it for other computer tasks, then of course it is always a good idea to get more rather than less, but I wouldn't sweat the specs too much. That's my bottom line.
Other trading platforms may need more, but not Sierra Chart.
Bob.
When one door closes, another opens.
-- Cervantes, Don Quixote
"The hardware requirements for Sierra Chart depends upon what you are doing with it. Most desktop/laptop/notebook/subnotebook systems can run Sierra Chart without any difficulty including the Microsoft Surface Pro.
The following hardware specifications, are very much recommended for a fast system: 32 GB RAM, minimum of 4 core CPU, and a SSD (solid-state drive). The more CPU cores and memory you have, generally will be beneficial."
Here is a comparison of older processors with a newer processor. I've run SC with both the i7 and i5 on this list without issue.
From my experience running a chartbook with 20 charts running and (too) many indicators on the i7, I've only used over 80% of available Memory when wanting to run other applications simultaneously such as watching HD Youtube videos and IB's TWS, which is a memory hog, but that is not a SC issue. An upgrade from 8MB to 16MB ram solved that issue. As for the i5 processor and 8MB ram, I had no problems with chartbook with 10 charts and many indicators.
I guess you’re a Mac guy so you are use to high quality :-)! My only experience with pcs are Lenovo, dell and asus, which have all been positive. I also have a pc from a small builder, which has run for the last 8 years without too many problems (hard drive dying noisy fan that needed to be replaced).
Just get the cheapest computer that you can get, try to have 16GB of ram, but it will work with 8GB as well.
Don't spend money on expensive PC, you don't need a gaming PC, just buy a cheap one and take it easy
I said I wouldn't make hardware recommendations, but I guess I will. You really don't have to worry that much, honestly. Just don't buy a super high end machine and don't buy bargain basement. But cheap, as in not expensive, is fine.
So, I have bought HP and been fine with them. Never the top model, you just don't need it. I like the fact that you can walk into a Best Buy (a good electronics chain) and get one off the shelf for a few hundred bucks and it will do the job. I have bought Dell, although you have to order those, but they should come quickly enough. @JohnS also mentioned Lenovo, which is a Chinese brand that took over the IBM laptop line years ago (I have no experience with them but they are probably fine) and Asus, an Asian company that is selling a lot of PC's, which I also haven't used, but which I think you will see in Best Buy as a low-end PC. I think that today's "low end" PC's will run most programs very well, and certainly Sierra Chart.
Someone may chime in here with a monster PC they bought for SC, and you can do that too, but it doesn't sound like it's what you need. PC's are sort of commodity items; get something mid-range and you should be fine. Remember my aged laptop, this one I'm using right now, and which has SC plus Chrome for internet plus some open newspaper sites plus Word and Excel, and the SC instance has two chartbooks, one with 6 and one with 10 charts open, and more indicators that I need or use... no problem, it just hums along.
You would like a lot of RAM (16 GB is good, 8 would be fine), but this old crock has 4GB (as in four) and it is fine too. You see what I mean about not needing much. You will need a 64 bit processor, but I don't think you could find any less today (I didn't 10 or so years ago.) Whatever size hard drive or SSD it comes with should be fine, and the processor will be fast enough (mine is a geriatric 1.5 GHertz.... ) I do have some issues with running NinjaTrader 8 on this machine, but it is more resource-intensive than Sierra Chart, and you couldn't buy such an underpowered PC anywhere now if you went looking for one, anyway.
Don't sweat it. Pick up something mid-range and you will be satisfied, I believe. If you want to do a lot of other stuff on the PC, go up a step or two, but even then, understand that PC hardware is very fast today, and while you can get a whiz-bang machine, you won't need one, especially not for Sierra Chart.
Bob.
When one door closes, another opens.
-- Cervantes, Don Quixote
CPU
If you want to replay tick data at speed, e.g. 30x, you will need a fast CPU. SierraChart is almost never CPU bound in real time, but this will become a factor if you run chart replays with tick data at high speed.
Storage (SSD)
The next bottleneck is loading SCID files from the disk cache, especially if you use studies that require MaintainVolumeAtPriceData or UsesMarketDepthData. This is where you see the pop-up text "Loading .scid data" with a % bar that creeps up slowly. If your studies or chart replays need to load several days of tick/L2 data (e.g. Footprint charts or Historical Market Depth), you will appreciate fast storage and memory.
Reliability
This is often overlooked. For trading, reliability is important and I prefer to choose quality over performance. There is a big difference between systems designed for casual home use vs 24/7 business and workstation use: driver and BIOS stability, PSU quality, voltage regulator quality, mainboard design and quality, general cooling efficiency, quality of fans.
In general, I would recommend these minimum specs:
CPU: 6-Cores. Consider what else you will be doing while SierraChart is open. You may want to record a video of your trading session, or watch YouTube/Netflix when markets are quiet. Is it possible you will want to supplement SierraChart with another package, e.g. Bookmap?
Memory: 16GB. 8GB is OK but the cost difference is generally negligible, so if you order 16GB from the outset you'll likely get a matched pair of DIMMs rather than a single DIMM, and that will increase your memory bandwidth.
SSD: Minimum 256GB, but consider larger or a separate HDD if you are recording video.
Graphics: Consider if the PC will support the number of monitors and resolutions you want to run. You may want multiple monitor support in the future.
). But I think that any middle-
