Good Computer Build for Stock broking? (Phenom Build)

[Xpyrofuryx]

Hey Guys, I am building a computer for Stock Exchanging for Day trading. This stuff can get pretty hectic so Im gonna need some processing power, ect. Also I put the K1 NIC in because yeah it might not be worth the money but it does deliver the best performance and undoubtedly stock exchanging relies a lot on quick updates and quick transactions so I deemed it worthy here.

but anyway what do you guys think?

CPU: AMD Phenom X4 Agena Quad-Core ---------------------- $199
RAM: 4GB (4x1GB) G.Skill DDR2 800mhz -------------------- $90
Motherboard: Gigabyte DS4 790X AM2+ ------------------------ $140
Hard Drive 1: 250GB Western Digital Caviar SE16 ---------- $70
Hard Drive 2: 250GB Western Digital Caviar SE16 ---------- $70
Graphics Card 1: MSI nVidia GeForce 8500GT 256 --------- $66
Graphics Card 2: MSI nVidia GeForce 8500GT 256 --------- $66
PSU: OCZ GameXstream 700watt power supply ------------- $99
Case: Cooler Master Centurion 5 ATX Mid Tower ------------ $50
CD Drive: Sony NEC Optiarc DVD/CD w/ LS ------------------ $30
NIC: BFN Killer NIC K1 Ethernet Card ------------------------ $180
PCI card: Sabrent TV Tuner Card --------------------------- $20

Mon 1: KDS 22" LCD Black Widescreen Monitor ------------ $235
Mon 2: KDS 22" LCD Black Widescreen Monitor ------------ $235
Mon 3: KDS 20" LCD Black Widescreen Monitor ------------ $190
Mon 4: KDS 20" LCD Black Widescreen Monitor ------------ $190

 

[Xpyrofuryx]

Any Opinions?

 

[LukeBird]

I personally wouldn't bother with the 8500's, they're are better options...
Can't think what the difference between them and 3850's is off the top of my head though...
Power supply is probably overkill though...
Other than that, nice!

 

[croc]

Get that NIC if it makes you feel good, but your bottleneck will still be your internet connection between your PC and wherever you connect to.

I'll make you a wee wager... measure the average return of 1000 pings, say at 09:00 using your onboard nic, then install your 'killer' nic and repeat the test next day. If the numbers are over 5 ms on average faster, I'll buy you a beer.

 

[jimmysmitty]

If you want to go with Phenom it is highly suggested to wait until the B3's come out as it is set to address some of the issues.

For true processing power a Q6600 will do you better but it is a bit more expensive.

As for the quick updates, that NIC would pair up well with Verizons new FiOS internet(Fiber Optic YAY). For $52.99/month you can get 15down/2up which is much better than even cable/DSL offers for the same price. I am trying to get it since I have 7down/1up DSL and its the same price.

 

[Xpyrofuryx]

the price between the 8500GTs and the 3850s is big though. Do you think ill need the power of two 3850s? I mean it is 4 monitors but still im not doing anything like playing crysis.

 

[runswindows95]

All the reviews of the Killer NIC have all said the same thing: not worth the money.

 

[Xpyrofuryx]

I know, and agree that the K1 is not worth the money the majority of the time, but really its the best NIC and does deliver the best performance, which is what I need.

A quad-Core CPU will give me the best performance and the Phenom 9500 is the cheapest there is and low overclocking headroom doesnt matter because I am not overclocking. Also the errata does not matter because really it is never produced in real-world environments, and even if it is its because of high clock speeds. So this CPU seems to suit me just fine for what I want.

Graphics cards wise I just needs something that can handle screen on 4 monitors, multiple things up, streaming graphics here and there, and also cable television (MSNBC, ect.) I figured Dual (I need Dual for 4 monitors) 8500GTs would be fine, what do you guys think?

All criticisms are welcomed!

 

[croc]

Hmm... You are willing to blow 180 USD on a nic that is going to do you no good at all, but you are unwilling to blow an extra 50 USD on a processor that might actually perform better, run cooler, and use less power?

Sorry, don't mean to criticise.

 

[Xpyrofuryx]

Hmm, well alright, if I were to not get the K1 NIC, what other NIC would you recommend thats better than onboard?

 

[someguy7]

jimmysmitty. Verizon Fios is a nice no doubt about it. Espcially compared to the average cable company's internet. But it gets completey owned by cablevisions optimum service. The bad thing is cablevision is only available in the tri-state area of New York.

I'm spoiled rotton with 30down/5up for even less then 52 bucks a month.

Also rogers in Canada isnt to bad. But Fios does basically destroy the other cable provides internet in speed/price.

And as croc states an extra 180 bucks on nic but then going cheap on the cpu. That dont make any sense to me. Sure the Phenom build should perform fine but still. Either way I woundnt spend 180 bucks on it. Just aint worth it. Either stay with the AMD build and drop the nic. Or you could use the extra money to get the intel quad. Myself I would just stay with the phenom build minus the nic and save the money. The price performance increase with the nic just dont make sense.

 

[jimmysmitty]

jimmysmitty. Verizon Fios is a nice no doubt about it. Espcially compared to the average cable company's internet. But it gets completey owned by cablevisions optimum service. The bad thing is cablevision is only available in the tri-state area of New York.

I'm spoiled rotton with 30down/5up for even less then 52 bucks a month.

Also rogers in Canada isnt to bad. But Fios does basically destroy the other cable provides internet in speed/price.

And as croc states an extra 180 bucks on nic but then going cheap on the cpu. That dont make any sense to me. Sure the Phenom build should perform fine but still. Either way I woundnt spend 180 bucks on it. Just aint worth it. Either stay with the AMD build and drop the nic. Or you could use the extra money to get the intel quad. Myself I would just stay with the phenom build minus the nic and save the money. The price performance increase with the nic just dont make sense.

Maybe but Verizon does offer up to 50up and 15 down. Of course it might not be as cheap but still I prefer anything that is not cable as I hate sharing my bandwidth with other people, my TV and phone. But I would prefer the FiOS due to the fact that Fiber is proven to deliver even more bandwidth of the max easily where as with DSL/cable there is loss.

But for those outside the tri-state area like me its a great offer. Although Arizona doesn't have it yet(we get everything like 2 years after i.e. we got Verizons EVO network about 2 years after everywhere else had it) maybe whe I move back to Texas I will get it. 15 up and 15down sounds so awesome. Gaming will be so easy.

The NIC is a waste really. The onboard will do you fine for what you want to do so you can save $180 bucks. But still its not the errata that I am talking about but the fact that there is a chance of a bad core and plus the power consuption is much more. It also wont give the same performance in the end.

But the Phenom is cheap. For the video cards you are fine I guess. Could even cut you some money by getting older ones.

 

[Just_An_Engineer]

Regarding the video cards, I believe that the 790X chipset on the motherboard you chose is not SLI compatible, only crossfire compatible, so definately don't buy two Nvidia cards. For the same money you should look at a pair of HD2600 PRO's or HD2600 XT's if you really need to have two cards.

 

[zenmaster]

He is not planning on doing SLI.
His cards will be independently running monitors.

 

[Mathos]

I say don't bother with the 8500's and get two of these.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102726

Should be able to crossfire them if you want to do some light gaming too. plus for the extra $10 a piece you get a hell of a lot more frame buffer ram.

I don't think I'd bother with the NIC, from what I remember the built in NIC on the gigabyte boards is pretty good quality, and low cpu usage. Honestly, depending on what apps you're running with cool and quiet enabled the phenom will probably spend most of it's time in half speed idle mode.

As far as running cooler, I doubt it, with a good cpu cooler they don't go above 40c. And if the 9500 comes with the same cooler that my 9600be came with, it would be the same cooler that comes with the 125w rated 6400+ X2.

Don't worry too much about the bad core thing, if not OCing it not likely to effect you. Everyone seems to want to grasp at anything they can to keep people from buying AMD right now.

 

[someguy7]

True jimmy verizon does offer higher speeds. But here in my area they want or wanted 180 bucks for just the 30down package. Last time I checked it was in the fall.

The optimum(cablevision) network is fiberoptic. And trust me it delivers the full bandwith 24/7 with the tv and phone on.

But you are right it is still a great offer. Probally one of the best in the country. If I couldnt have my current cable I would switch to verison fios. Evem they I hate verizon. Years ago my DSL was 50 bucks a month for a max download of 89.9kbs and upload of 15kbs. Had to weight almost a year on that crap till cable was avaible on my street(was very poor area so we basically the last people in the city to get the service). At that point in the time optimum had 10up/10down/ for cheaper. People one block away from me had it and it made me mad.

sorry for going off topic but those times made me upset

 

[TechnologyCoordinator]

I don't know if a quad-core is needed. A dual core from either company might work more than fine. If you're going quad, I recommend the Q6600 over any Phenom. Like others said, B3 Phenoms (the next revision) will hopefully be better.

 

[runswindows95]

You mean the Q6600, TC, and I agree with you on that one.

 

[TechnologyCoordinator]

You mean the Q6600, TC, and I agree with you on that one.

Yes, I did mean that! I have edited my post to indicate that. Thank you!

 

[Iain1974]

If you're buying the Phenom cpu, may I ask if you're an AMD stockholder? I'm guessing if the B3 revision delivers we might see a bump.

 

[Xpyrofuryx]

Actually I do own 1000 shares of AMD lol, i just recently bought because its a very low price right now and really can only get better lol and i predict a way brighter future for AMD or a buy-out either way a good thing for my shares.

 

[TechnologyCoordinator]

A year from now AMD shares might be double what they are today, at least I think they will be. AMD still has a rough road ahead, but even breaking even (no profit, no loss) would double their stock price. If they return to profitability in 2009 I can see their stock trading in the high teens. I don't think they'll break $25 until they get a serious response to Core 2.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

I don't really get it. I know many very successful traders doing all their trading on their Palm Treo's. A colleague that does trading has a high performance system on his desk and on the "return" (the part to the side on an L shaped desk), he has a $499 HP system on which he does his trading.

And if "the need is speed", I find the AMD selection a bit unexpected, especially since you are investing in a NIC like that. If a page updates in 0.087 seconds versus 0.081 seconds, I don't think you will be able to improve the value of the trades by getting the info 0.006 seconds faster.

But as to the selections, well I'm afraid I can't get behind ya on these:

MoBo/CPU - Again, I think Intel provides betetr bang per buck at this time.
Vid cards - It appears that you are putting twin nVidia vid cards into what I always thought was a board built for ATI Crossfire. And with nVidia 8600 GT 512 MB boards over at newegg for just $6 more after rebate, I don't see the logic of those old 8500's. If ya switch to Intel, the nVidia 8600GT's would be my choice at $72 after rebate
Hard Drives - Those HD's came out in late 2004 or early 2005 with DTR's of 61 - 34 MB'sec. That's about half what current drives offer....Again, having trouble reconciling the need for Killer NIC when HD's gonna be crawling along at half speed.
Case - One 80 x 80 x 20 mm Front Fan ( Intake ),One 120x 120x 25mm Rear Fan(Exhaust) seem a bit light for twin video cards and I see that case is rated for a 390 watt PSU.
Optical Drive - This model is dbl layer for same price hhttp://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827118001
Tuner Card - reviews on Amazon and newegg were vey low.
http://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-TV-PCIRC-Tuner-Remote-Control/dp/B000AOUDYE
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?Item=N82E16815123001 (30% rated excellent)

This two did better
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815116633
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815116620

Also, what network cabling (Cate 5e ? Cat 6 ?) is available ? If it's not gigabit ethernet throughout, that is going to be your bottleneck.

The optimum (cablevision) network is fiberoptic. And trust me it delivers the full bandwith 24/7 with the tv and phone on.

Parts of it are. I have had Cablevision's Boost service since the day they rolled it out; the 700' run from the street to the building is copper wire as is all the internal building wiring. The trunk lines are fiber but not the distribution. And while advertised as 30 down, only a few speed tests that will show those kinda numbers. Optonline's seems broken atm as their page is 404'ing me.

http://speed.nyc.wave2wave.com/
21,896.0 Kbps down / 4184.0 Kbps up

http://reviews.cnet.com/Bandwidth_meter/7004-7254_7-0.html
about every 5th one will get 4017 kbps, others at 2500 or so.

http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/
29,932 kilobits down / 4,216 up

http://www.bandwidthplace.com/
1,180 kilobytes per second

http://www.testmy.net/tools/test/results.php
Download :: 24,421 Kbps or 24.42 Mbps (2,981 kB/s)
Upload :: 971 Kbps or 1 Mbps (119 kB/s)

http://www.speedtest.net/
29,979 down / 4,284 up

http://www.pcpitstop.com/internet/Bandwidth.asp
8,404 kilobits per second down

 

[compy386]

The 9500 runs $199 on newegg. Whereas the Q6600 runs $275. I really don't see why everyone is recommending the Q6600. It's not that much faster than the 9500.

 

[Iain1974]

Actually I do own 1000 shares of AMD lol, i just recently bought because its a very low price right now and really can only get better lol and i predict a way brighter future for AMD or a buy-out either way a good thing for my shares.

I tend to agree with you. I wish I had some spare cash. A decent B3 might see $10-12 swiftly. A poor B3 could see the IBM checkbook open up. Either way I think AMD has a future.

ATI seem to be back in the game which ought to help too.