building a trading computer useable upgrades....

[TradingSoftware]

Nearly all computers built today are good enough for Trading.

 

[gle101]

Nearly all computers built today are good enough for Trading.

It all depends on the setup and what kind of platform you are trading, some platforms are more CPU intensive while others are not so demanding. There is no fun getting technical hardware problem while you are trading. I have had all kinds of hardware problem during the years I have been trading and are quite sensitive about eliminating technical issues.

 

[gle101]

MY mate put this together for me

Yes looks nice, I would not mind having this setup.
The only thing I would prefer is a SSD, instead of hybrid HD (SSHD).

How does it perform in trading, I am especially thinking about the CPU. Do you allocate certain task to a preset CPU core?

 

[gle101]

Running more screens is simply GPU intensive, not CPU intensive.
With more screens you're typically asking the GPU to run at a higher resolution which means there is more video processing involved. A more powerful graphics card will be of greater benefit than adding more CPU cores to the equation.
The next version of Windows is due to include multiple workspaces which will allow you to extend your desktop virtually without resorting to an unnecessary physical extension of the video real estate. This feature has been a staple of Linux for as long as Linux/*nix has been around (2+ decades). I no longer use Windows.

I actually don't understand this, maybe I have misunderstood the issue, but running more screens means you have more data for the CPU to process, altough it will help and sometimes nessesary, in games for example, to let the GPU process some of the data coming through. Upgrading from 2 core to a 4 core CPU have been an imense improvement for me. I guess it also depends on what kind of programs and OS you are using, that is, if it is written in a code that benefits from multiple CPU cores. However, I certainly do agree that a very good graphic card will improve performance of multiple displays.

 

[gle101]

thanks for that tradespreads. so if I've got this right? once the right gpu (and screens) are purchased, the limitation is the pc's ability to run the software/program which creates the amount of screen images required. yes?

what about the impact on data speeds/bandwidth across the internet?

as I see it, it's all very well having the ability to display vast amounts of data, but one also has to have the ability to receive all this data. i ask this as the other day we had some poor chap having trouble running a spread bet platform, let alone running multiple screens of that platform due to the fact his broadband speed topping out @ 2Mb max. those of us with reasonable broadband speeds had no trouble on the same platform. I believe it is something worth at least adding here to the topic of discussion.

Are you sure it depends on the Internet connection, 2Mbits is not much but still good enough speed to trade. If the upload is let say 1Mbits it should be enough. More speed is better of course but many is using ADSL so the upload is less than the download. I would check the pingtime of the ISP and the pingtime to the trading server in order to role out the Internet connection. I would'nt be surprised if the fault lies in the computer, processor, ram memory, network card and so forth.