New build advice: Dependable Stock Trading Workstation / Flight Simulator build around $1500

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TraderJoes

Commendable
Apr 11, 2016
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0
1,510
Hello all,

It has been about 10 years since I have built a computer, so I am having a tough time catching up with technology.

Looking for robust, dependable build advice to trade stocks and play flight simulator on occasion (simulator does not have to be on the highest graphics setting). I will be using three or four 34" curved monitors (3440 x 1440) or four 29" ultrawide monitors (2560 x 1080).

I will have several windows and charts opened simultaneously, so I prefer a minimum of 32GB RAM.

Prefer not to overclock since I have never done it before.

Budget appx $1500, however, it would be great to get this around $1200.

1. Windows 7 Pro (I will purchase on ebay for around $55)
2. Form factor: well-built mid or full case is fine (I want to be sure that I have enough air flow).
3. Will need Wi-Fi motherboard or a FAST wireless network card -- I will have to check router
compatibility.
4. SSD boot drive with HDD (have not decided on RAID 0 or RAID 1 at this time). If the PCIe
m.2 motherboard drives offer much more speed than SDD drives, I will consider that -- I am
open to suggestions.

The parts will be purchased in the USA. I am not concerned about colored lights and parts, etc. -- just stability.

Hopefully, I have not forgotten anything. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
 
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James Mason
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James Mason

James Mason

Titan
Jan 2, 2014
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No this is the right place, but you probably just got lost in the crowd.

A few questions, Are those monitors supposed to be included in the budget?

Are you going to be using a combined resolution for the flight sim with all the monitors displaying the game, or just one monitor?

Are you going to use any special software to trade stocks? can we get a link to it? It's rather unlikely you'd need 32gbs of ram, typically only people dealing with long video editing of uncompressed movies need that much.

Is the Windows 7 purchase subtracted from the total budget?

Get back to us on what router you have, as it doesn't matter how fast of a wifi card we get you if your router doesn't support it's faster speed, and wired would still be the preferred option.

Why do you think you need RAIDed hard drives? (raid 0 is for improved speed, raid 1 is for protecting your data)

 
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jmsellars1

jmsellars1

Splendid
Dec 31, 2010
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Sounds like you need a very good CPU, lots of RAM and a good graphics card so I wouldn't blow too much of the budget on an M.2. SSD. There isn't much of a real world difference in speed anyway because they all tend to throttle and slow down to SATA-like speeds anyway unless they have dedicated cooling. Even with the cooling it won't really 'feel' much faster for opening programs etc.

If dependability is a high priority as well, I'd make sure everything runs super cool, don't overclock and get an excellent power supply.


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($239.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U14S 55.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($69.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus H97-PLUS ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($99.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Mushkin Silverline 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($52.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Intel 480GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($134.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($84.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card ($318.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Corsair 300R ATX Mid Tower Case ($67.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA P2 650W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($94.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $1164.71
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-13 16:15 EDT-0400


Something like that should be great.


EDIT: For the wireless adapter, I'd get a good wireless AC PCI-e card from a reputable brand like this Intel one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833106251&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-PCPartPicker,%20LLC-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=
 
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T

TraderJoes

Commendable
Apr 11, 2016
5
0
1,510


James, Thank you for your reply.

No, the monitors are not in the budget.

I have decided to go with three 34" curved monitors. I would like to use all three for the flight sim.

The trading software is not too demanding, however, I am only assuming that having 20-30 windows and charts opened (as well as streaming cnbc) that I would need at least 32gb RAM. I would only do minimal video editing with a go-pro.

Windows 7 pro does not have to be included in the budget.

The router is a TC8305c by Technicolor. I download appx 30mpbs per speedtest.net. I was looking at an ASUS PCE-AC56 or PCE-AC68, but this is probably overkill (and I do not think it is AC compatible).

As far as RAIDed drives, I was only interested in backing up my data. I will not have much need for data protection, so I assume I should choose RAID 0.
 
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James Mason

James Mason

Titan
Jan 2, 2014
13,553
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74,965


So....

1. Which flight sim specifically? I need to do a bit of research to see whether or not it actually supports multiple monitors, or if you have to do a combined resolution, as that would affect the graphics card you need. Using all 3 of those monitors (in a game) is actually a very large resolution that is pretty difficult for a lot of graphics cards to be able to power.

2. An average webpage opened in google chrome uses about 30-100MBs of RAM, 20-30 internet browser windows would only need between 900MBs to 3GBs of RAM. Excel can vary alot in size, but a single sheet workbook only uses about 60-70MBs of ram. So again, I doubt you'll need 32GBs of ram, unless your Excel workbooks have millions of rows of data.

3. So your router is pretty okay, it does support the current fastest wireless speed of AC, but it may require a special setup to get that enabled.

4. Back on Raiding: Raid 0 combines the space of two (or more) drives to make one larger drive with the disk writing power of two. This doesn't protect your data, and actually can make it more vulnerable as Raid 0 is kinda susceptible to be "broken" where after like a blackout the Raid gets broken and the bios can't read the drives until you restore the connection, but it can still lead to corrupt data.

Raid 1 creates a mirror copy of the main drive on the secondary drive, this allows you to always have current copy of your data in case your hard drive dies on you suddenly, which can happen.

There's more raid levels that are mixtures of 0 and 1 that require more hard drives and have different levels of increased speed as well as backups of your data.



But here's a preliminary part list:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($309.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock Z170M Pro4S Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($87.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: *Kingston Savage 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($159.39 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO 250GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($87.10 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($73.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($73.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 390X 8GB Video Card ($409.99 @ Micro Center)
Case: Corsair SPEC-02 ATX Mid Tower Case ($55.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($78.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical Drive: *Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer ($13.99 @ Newegg)
Wireless Network Adapter: Gigabyte GC-WB867D-I 802.11a/b/g/n/ac PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($29.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1381.10
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-17 13:06 EDT-0400

You'd install the OS and your programs on the M.2 SSD, and then you can raid 1 the HDDs and put your data/document/video files on them so they'll always be backed up.

 
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