For running multiple monitors, two video cards would work.. and you'd have an extra output for a 4th monitor if you wanted to add one later.

Since ninjatrader makes absolutely no use of 3d acceleration and is not likely to any time soon, you'd be just as well off with a couple of entry level cards at $60 to $120 each as you would be with a more expensive card.

I think the processor is the only thing that will give you a noticeable performance boost. The video card and hard drive speed will probably not matter at all. RAM speed does not matter at all either in my experience, although you want plenty of it.

Motherboard stability is also worth paying more for, which is an argument for spending the extra dollars for a good motherboard. You might want a motherboard that is designed for heavy useage such as for servers or serious workstations.

I would stay away from RAID 0. The performance boost is negligable and your chance of hard drive failure increases exponentially. You will be just as happy with a simple cheap hard drive as you would be with anything more expensive.

SSD drives are not worth it either. I have one and the performance boost is not noticeable at all for trading.

The new box has to run super quiet, that's one of my requirements, so I'll probably go with two cards with passive cooling.

looking for passive cooling, thats absolute worth it if you build machine for trading and dont need gamer+3d- power.

i run fanless matrox cards since years + can recommend this.
but also there are cheaper passive cooled cards out there.

I think I'll pick up that Acronis Home 2010 with the free add-on for $50.

Thanks for the heads-up Zoethecus.

Need to replace my system which is about 4 years old. Do not want to build anything but just make a reasonable purchase.

Required: Reliable workstation with reasonably strong processor, Windows 7 64-bit, to connect up to 4 monitors (2560 x 1600), 3 year-onsite-service

Found:

- Dell Precision T3500
- HP z400
- Lenovo S20

All come with a Intel X58 express Chipset, at least a Xeon W3530 processor and use two nVidia NVS 295 graphics adapters to connect the 4 monitors. Can be easily ordered online, no custom-built features required. The HP and Lenovo workstation come without the graphics adapters, so I just will get them separately and put them into the machines.

All machines can be upgraded to connect 8 monitors (HP officially only supports 6) by using NVidia NVS 450 cards, probably will never need this. Information overload confuses and does not help.


Question

(1) Have not been able to find appropriate documentation on the noise levels generated by these systems (referring to fan noise under moderate processor load).

(2) Does anybody have an idea about the support levels for Dell, HP and Lenovo?


My current system is a Dell workstation. The only thing that I do not like is the fan noise.