Welcome to NexusFi: the best trading community on the planet, with over 150,000 members Sign Up Now for Free
Genuine reviews from real traders, not fake reviews from stealth vendors
Quality education from leading professional traders
We are a friendly, helpful, and positive community
We do not tolerate rude behavior, trolling, or vendors advertising in posts
We are here to help, just let us know what you need
You'll need to register in order to view the content of the threads and start contributing to our community. It's free for basic access, or support us by becoming an Elite Member -- see if you qualify for a discount below.
-- Big Mike, Site Administrator
(If you already have an account, login at the top of the page)
So, I am in the market for a new PC. I am wanting to buy a 2nd machine so I can run my charts and trading platform separately. I am good with computers, but by no means a tech guy or a DIY computer talent. I have heard plenty of varying opinions from have a local shop build a machine, to buy a Dell to just find something with good components on sale...I searched on here for awhile and found some advice in other threads, but never thread where others discussed options and gave recommendations...
I know BM has talked about tech in the past some, but my finger is not really on the pulse of what is about to come out and new technological toys and such...so any insight would be great.
I am the type who wants to spend some time researching and getting the right setup as opposed to just buying something and moving on hoping it lasts...so any advice guys?
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
I am currently running a T3500 workstation I bought from the Dell Outlet 2 years ago (someone's advice to me). It has the Xeon W3690 Processor with a SSD, and I have 2 NVIDIA Quadro NVS 295 cards running 4 monitors.
I am guessing I will want the new PC to running my charts (IRT, IQFeed). I will want to run 4 monitors (possibly add 2 more and have 6 charting monitors) on the charting PC.
I am open on the budget range. I'd rather not skimp and get subpar components, but then again, it would be great to keep it under $2,000 also....I'm just not sure all I need...such as a new video card, etc...
I would build your own system. Newegg is good for finding good parts and reading reviews, getting advice (from reviews) on what works well together. I still purchase primarily on Amazon but that's just because they have superior service these days.
Just get a mid-range Haswell Core i7 if you intend to use the integrated graphics, or an Ivy Bridge Core i7 if you intend to buy separate discrete graphics (likely, if doing multi-monitor).
Get 16GB of RAM, and get a good SSD like a Samsung 840 Pro. Get a good PSU, like Corsair or Seasonic. Buy a good third party heatsink/fan if you want it to be quieter, such as Noctua. If you want real quiet also replace the case fans with Noctua fans.
For video card, make sure you match your monitors. If your monitors are HDMI, get HDMI video cards. If DisplayPort, get DisplayPort. These are brand oriented, I think Dell and AMD are DisplayPort for example, while nVidia is HDMI.
Don't buy anything by "OCZ", they recently filed bankruptcy and even though Toshiba is buying them, there was a reason they went bankrupt.
Once you pick out some parts --- motherboard, cpu, ram, power supply, case --- then come back here and post links and you'll get more advice probably. Again, go to the reviews for things like the CPU and motherboard and you'll find plenty of people that post their entire build to give you some ideas.
Also keep in mind forums like HardForum or overclock.net are better for this type of thing, unless you are asking a specific trading setup question (like six monitors or something).
You can do it. There are a million videos to help you. Much better than buying a Dell, unless you really need to be able to pick up the phone and call a single company with any problem. That is the only real reason someone would by Dell (or any premade) in my opinion.
You raise a very valid point, that I am now considering...initially, I wanted to have 2 PC's, so my charts and order platform were on separate systems...but that is not a MUST for me now.
Side question:
As traders...what is important in a video card? What things are important to look for and what specs are just a waste and not worth paying for?
I run 2 HD4350 cheapo cards, runs perfect for almost 7years.
Just look for an ati firepro or the NVS variant that can support 4 monitors.
If you have one more agp slot available then just ad one more card.
It also depends on the monitor size that you want to connect to it.
