4 screen multi monitor fast but cheap trading system

[thriftee]

I'm building a machine capable of putting trading charts on the screen in real time, and after many years of suffering with slow machines and not enough screen space, here is what I'm thinking to build. Please feel free to criticize or comment. I searched threads here and other places for days trying to find a combination that I think would work well. I do plan to overclock it a bit if possible to get maximum stable performance out of it. The plan is to run Linux on it, probably Debian Etch, Ubuntu, or Sabayon, depending on what's fastest that will work reliably.

FWIW, I considered both ATI and Nvidia, and came to the conclusion that the SLI was designed to do exactly what I was trying to do, and the price was about the same, so that's the route I chose.

Let me know what you gurus think, please.

Item List:

1 x ($19.99) CPU COOLER ROSEWILL|RCX-Z300 R - Retail
$19.99

1 x ($269.99) CPU INTEL|C2Q Q9400 2.66G 775 45N R - Retail
$269.99

1 x ($12.99) KB&MS LOGITECH|DELUXE 250 DESKTOP % - OEM
$12.99

4 x ($169.99) MNTR ACER|LCD 22" 5MS X223WBD R - Retail
$679.96

1 x ($24.99) CASE ROSEWILL|R230-P-BK RT - Retail
$24.99

2 x ($79.99) VGA GIGABYTE GV-N95TD3-512H 9500GT - Retail
$159.98

1 x ($94.98) PSU RAIDMAX | HYBRID2 RX-730SS 730W - Retail
$94.98

1 x ($199.99) MEM 2Gx4|GSK F2-8800CL5Q-8GBPI R - Retail
$199.99

1 x ($7.49) FD 1.44MB|SAMSUG SFD321B/LBL1 % - OEM
$7.49

2 x ($54.99) HD 250G|ST 7K 16M SATA2 ST3250410AS - OEM
$109.98

1 x ($21.99) DVD BURN LG|GH22NP20 22X IDE % - OEM
$21.99

1 x ($129.99) EVGA 122-YW-E173-TR LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 750i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
$129.99

 

[thriftee]

Oh well, I thought there would be someone here familiar with high perf multi video setups.

I think I'll find the potential troubles are in the linux camp, but I won't know till I try to load it.

I've come to the conclusion that there is no setup that has a chance at working like this with the linux, at least not anything supported. I guess if I get lucky it works, if not i fight it a few months, and then either give up or load mickeysoft's latest bad code on it.

 

[chris312]

SLI/Crossfire (they are essentially the same) disables the ability to use as many monitors as you have DVI ports. You just need any motherboard with multiple PCI Express x16 slots and two graphics cards. They can even be two different graphics cards. They don't even have to be PCI Express - A decend PCI card should work.

Avoid Raidmax PSUs. There are many better power supplies you can have for $100. For your setup you don't need more than 500W really.

 

[chris312]

Some specific ideas:

This motherboard is a little cheaper and better than the Nvidia IMO

Obviously, if you decide to go with PCI video cards you can go even cheaper for a motherboard.

This video card is enough for just displaying charts, and is only $20 after rebate

For the same price, get this substantially better case and power supply

For $170 less, get 4GB of ram. If you must have 8GB, get two sets.

Good luck

 

[Proximon]

+1

Avoid the Rosewill junk. We get about 2 traders a month through here, and most of them just want it all done for them. You are off to a good start

 

[thriftee]

Got it all running. Getting the 2 video cards and 4 screens going under linux was wild, but it does work. No slowness with all screens full of charts in realtime.

Next I want to figure out how to overclock it a bit. LOL, I wish i knew what I was doing.

Its an Intel Q9400 (Core 2 Quad 2.66 ghz) with 8gb of 1100 G Skill memory on an eVGA 750i SLI m/b with an Award BIOS

Any thoughts on how to safely boost the CPU and memory speed without burning anything up?

 

[rockstartrader]

Have you checked out SUPER PC Multi-Monitors.com yet? When using Multiple Monitors, sometimes it's best
to get a manufactured system from professionals, because you don't want to get crashes and
stuff from an improperly configured system. Trust me, I've been through the process!
Here are some pretty nice systems that aren't very expensive.

Multiple Monitor Computers

You might want to get one of these as well...
Multiple Monitor Displays

If you want a really easy solution for four monitors, where you don't need any special
configurations and only have one PCI Express16 slot on your motherboard, you may
want to use this video card below. It's very popular for Day Trading Computers.

NVS Quadro 440 Graphics Card (Supports Quad Monitors)

Also, here's a good site that will give you a good introduction to
Multiple Monitor setups and the best ways to set them up on a computer.

Multi-Screens.com