Trading Computer Build ( i7 Need Advice!! )

[pwn]

This is going to be short and sweet peeps. I would like a custom built trading computer with the highest quality hardware!!!

I would like a i7 CPU and from what I understand a Raid 5 hard drive configuration is just as fast as a solid state drive with much more storage ( obviously ) now if that is true I would like that to be applied into the build.

I will need this configuration to support 4-6 monitors ( 26 inch monitors ). Now I would love to go to NewEgg and buy the most expensive things, but from doing some research it does not work that way lol.

The above being said all of the hardware must be compatible, but I am not to positive if all the most expensive top of the line best of the best products will be compatible with each other ( That is where you come in )

The only thing we can save money on is the video card(s) ( I think I need more then 1 video card with my 4-6 monitor request ) Everything else must be best of the best top of the line hardware.


Dream away ,

Niko

 

[aevm]

You need 3 video cards with 2 DVI outputs each for 6 monitors . Try something like this:

EVGA 132-BL-E758-A1 LGA 1366 Intel X58
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188039

CORSAIR DOMINATOR 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145224

PC Power & Cooling S75CF 750W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341011&Tpk=S75CF

with an i920, three HD 4670 cards, a couple of WD 640GB drives, and Vista Home Premium 64-bit.

 

[battlemarz]

With two 4850 X2s you would be able to get up to 8 monitors if I am not mistaken. That would be the way to go for video.

 

[aevm]

LOL, eight 26" monitors, where do you even put them? But yeah, why not, especially if you also want to play games.

If you get two HD 4850 X2 cards, I strongly recommend a Corsair 1000HX PSU and an NZXT Tempest.

 

[battlemarz]

I suppose if he could make do with ONLY 4 26" monitors he could save 300 bones and go with just one 4850X2. :lol:

 

[aberchonbie]

Is there a need to get such powerful graphics cards for displaying information that isn't very graphics intensive? (Am I correct in assuming that you will be viewing a large array of numbers on all screens?)

The recommended EVGA X58 has 3 pci-e 2.0 slots that run at x16/x8/x8 with three way crossfire. It would seem that running 3-way crossfire with cheaper cards would be more reasonable as prices on graphics cards increase substantially with marginally better performance (you won't even see the performance gains as you'll be dealing with numbers, not games using Directx10).

Instead of getting two 4850x2 in crossfire for a maximum of 8 outputs at $600 spent on video cards, why not buy three 4830's or lower graphics cards for a maximum of 6 display outputs at a cost of $300.

I mean if you want the BEST out there, two 4850 x2's would offer solid GAMING performance and options to add additional monitors, but it would be kind of an overkill in your situation.

(Assuming your monitors aren't running resolutions in excess of 2560x1600, a 4830 will be powerful enough to run them)

Also, two 4850x2's would require more power from your psu than three 4830's.

Can someone verify what I am saying here?


Oh, and also, you will need most likely want to look into a FULL ATX case. Anything smaller and you'll be running into problems with your system overheating and your case not being able to fit all your components (esp if you want RAID 5 and 2 4850x2's as they are huge graphics cards)

 

[aevm]

There are no 26" monitors with resolutions of 2560x1600 or larger AFAIK. If you can find one please provide a link and I'll buy one myself. I think we should expect 1920x1200.

If this machine is for gaming, two HD 4850 X2 cards do make sense.
So would something like GTX 295 + GTX 295 + 8600GT (only 6 monitors though).

Two HD 4850 X2 cards under load do consume more than 3 HD 4830 cards under load, true. That's why I suggested the 1000HX for this scenario, it's a 1KW PSU.

BTW, if you buy three HD 4830 cards for gaming you'll have an unpleasant surprise, most likely. They tend to come without Crossfire bridges. Lots of upset customers because of that

 

[pwn]

Wow great information, thank you. Yea I do not need such a powerful graphics card, reason being is because I will only be running a trading platform and some web browsing ( nothing else ).

As far as the Raid 5 goes, is what I asked correct? And if so what set up would you recommend?

Regarding the memory that you recommended ( corsair ), is there any competition such as kingston?

aberchombie - You got the idea with the graphics cards, I am in no need of a gaming rig lol. That being said my screen res will most likely not even be 1900x1200. I am thinking about 1680x1050 for charting issues. A 1900x1200 is a little squinty on the eyes in my personal opinion.

aberchombie - Also I do not care if this case is 10 feet tall and 8 feet wide, as long as I have no cooling problems. I want this bish to make the arctic look like a summer get away

Let's build this women peeps!


Niko

 

[jyjjy]

If you are aiming at 1680x1050 suggestion of 3 HD 4670s was a good one. They are about $80 each and very cool and power efficient, they don't even need a power connector. Honestly they are fine even for gaming. I'm sure 3 crossfired could do pretty well with Crysis and any other game around if it mattered to you.
The fastest(nonSSD) drive around is the 640 gig WD black caviar drive but I have no idea about raid 5 so you'll have to wait for someone else to answer that one.

 

[Akebono 98]

You want a super build? Here are my suggestions:

CPU: i7 965 Extreme (overclocked)

Heatsink: Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme 1366RT (w/ Thermalright LGA 1366 Bolt-Thru Kit)

Thermal Paste: IC Diamond 7 Carat

Mobo: Asus P6T6 WS Revolution

RAM: Corsair Dominator DDR3-1866, 3x2GB, with cooling fan

Video Cards: two Sapphire 4850x2 cards for 8 monitors

Case: Coolermaster Stacker series, with 4-in-3 device modules for the HDDs

PSU: PCP&C 1200W

HDD (system): Intel X25-E 32GB SSD, 4 in RAID 0

HDD (data): Seagate Cheetah 15K.6 450GB SAS drives, 4 in RAID 5 (3 + 1 hot spare)

Hardware RAID Controller: Adaptec 2252700-R

Optical: Samsung SH-S223Q w/ Lightscribe

Mouse: Logitech MX Revolution

Keyboard: Microsoft Natural Ergonomic 4000

Monitor: eight 24" Samsung 245T (S-PVA panel)

OS: Vista Ultimate 64-bit


Feel free to "pare" this down as necessary.

 

[pwn]

You want a super build? Here are my suggestions:

CPU: i7 965 Extreme (overclocked)

Heatsink: Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme 1366RT (w/ Thermalright LGA 1366 Bolt-Thru Kit)

Thermal Paste: IC Diamond 7 Carat

Mobo: Asus P6T6 WS Revolution

RAM: Corsair Dominator DDR3-1866, 3x2GB, with cooling fan

Video Cards: two Sapphire 4850x2 cards for 8 monitors

Case: Coolermaster Stacker series, with 4-in-3 device modules for the HDDs

PSU: PCP&C 1200W

HDD (system): Intel X25-E 32GB SSD, 4 in RAID 0

HDD (data): Seagate Cheetah 15K.6 450GB SAS drives, 4 in RAID 5 (3 + 1 hot spare)

Hardware RAID Controller: Adaptec 2252700-R

Optical: Samsung SH-S223Q w/ Lightscribe

Mouse: Logitech MX Revolution

Keyboard: Microsoft Natural Ergonomic 4000

Monitor: eight 24" Samsung 245T (S-PVA panel)

OS: Vista Ultimate 64-bit


Feel free to "pare" this down as necessary.

Yeaaaah! Atta boy, I can for sure manage 8 screens. I just did not know it would be this easy to do it ( Not very custom build computer savvy ) Do you know how compatible all of those parts are?

Any reputable geek near Chicago that wants to make a few bucks lol? I am most definitely down to throw you some cash building this beast.

If I buy all the hardware, what is the going rate to build something like this?


Thanks for all the great input,

Niko

 

[aevm]

LOL, I think we've pushed this dream enough. Back to the real world now, how do we make this build more reasonable...

For example the eight 245T monitors can be replaced with eight Acer monitors of the same size, saving about $2000 (that's two thousand). The 245T is worth it for movies and photos, but won't do much for stock trading that a much cheaper monitor can't do.

The P6T6 WS at $360 is overkill, with the GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD4P at $240 offering all you need here. The $1010 i7 965 is also overkill, when a $300 i7 920 would still do the job exactly the same and still being idle most of the time. It's worth going for the i7 965 only if an i7 920 would be used at 100% most of the time, and I'm (almost) sure it's not the case here.

BTW, this could be done even cheaper with a P5Q-E and DDR2-800 and a Q9550.

 

[aevm]

Here's an even cheaper solution, btw:

K9A2 Platinum, Phenom 9850 quad CPU, four single-slot HD 4670 cards, DDR2-800. You get support for 8 monitors without expensive cards like HD 4850 X2, and I bet the CPU is still fast enough. The total cost is under $800, instead of $1010 (i7 965) + $360 (X58) + $700 (two HD 4850 X2 + HD 4670) + $410 (Corsair Dominator DDR3-1866).

 

[pwn]

Damn! See this is exactly what I am talking about lol. I am completely oblivious to what is needed in my situation. I thought the faster the CPU the faster it runs programs etc etc. Are you telling me I can build this computer for $800 lol? With an i7 CPU, because I do not know what a Phenom 9850 quad core is....

Basically my initial request is complete overkill and I will no where near use it to it's intended potential? I want something very reliable, but if I can even keep the budget under $1,500 I will just buy 2 set-ups


Niko

 

[aevm]

OK, let's try a simple test. You already have a PC and the trading software, right? Run it, then go to Task Manager and see the CPU usage. Tell us what kind of CPU you have now and how much of it is used.

The Phenom 9850 is a CPU made by AMD. It runs the same programs as the i7 920. If the programs are CPU-intensive (video encoding, Flight Simulator X, various math-intensive applications) then it's slower (by 30% or whatever, depending on benchmark). If the programs are less CPU intensive and all they really do is database queries and painting charts and Internet communications (e..g your trading programs, I think), even the Phenom 9850 would not be used at 100%. The same would be true for a Q6600, Intel's equivalent to that Phenom 9850. That is, the i7 setup would not be faster for that sort of thing, it would just be used at a lower percentage of its maximum abilities.

There are also faster CPUs like Phenom II 940, which also work in 790FX motherboards (i.e. with 4 slots for video cards, i.e. allowing 8 monitors). There's the Q9550 too, but that one is Intel and there are no Intel boards with 4 PCI-E slots AFAIK.

You can't really build it for $800 because the $800 includes only CPU/GPUs/RAM/MB, and you also need case/PSU/HDD/DVD/OS. Still, those are about $400 in total if you're not very picky, for a total of $1200.

Let's get one thing out of the way first: will you play games at all on this machine? If yes, are we talking about intensive things like shooters (Crysis, CoD, etc.), or just Solitaire/Tetris and so on?

 

[Jim_L9]

If you want the fastest disks you can go RAID 10, but you would been a dedicated controller and 4 drives. I don't think you would need anything that fast for what you want to do. The cost for someone to build the machine would depend on whether you want support after it is built. The building is usually the fun part, the support, not so much.

 

[Jim_L9]

Aevm is steering you in the right direction.

 

[jive]

There is one company specialized in multi display computerbuild. They also offer customization for the build they have check on Google. Because for multi display there is more then just multiple videocard with multiple output. did you want to have 1 image on all display your principal display split in 8 , on what screen did you want to display it. I think 6 to 8 display are not only for gaming

 

[Guest]

Couple of further points

1. Fastest RAID is 0 not 10, and whether you need it or not is dependent on multiple factors
A. Are you more interested in application load time or are you saving data constantly
B. Are you interested in raw speed or speed and safety (as in not losing your data)
C. You dont need a seperate RAID card, most decent MOBO's have ICH10R controllers

2. Besides just looking at the CPU you need to
A. Stop all other applications so that when you look at the task manager CPU core display everything shows zero or very minimal

B. Now get your trading program running at full load, does 1 CPU core show activity or all of them?

C. If you are only loading one CPU then core count wont matter much (your trading platform isnt multi-threaded very well)

D. During step B you also need to look at page file activity and memory usage

3. Video - Yeah you dont need high end, just compatible

4. Is you application written for 32 or 64 bit, probably 32 bit, but if they have a 64 bit option thats good, just another piece of the puzzle

If your system uses max cores on whatever you have now then an i7 will most likely increase the performance, but again there are a lot of variables

If you want to pass your e-mail to me I can help you out via a webex session (take a look at your system real time) probably not until monday though.

 

[Akebono 98]

Thanks to aevm for cutting me down there. And no, I was not trying to take you--just remember not to say "dream away" next time... What I've given you is a template for the gold standard. We can optimize quite a bit, of course.

You may need the highest available processing power, depending on what type of financial and / or mathematical models you run, so the i7 965 may not be overkill at all. In fact, it may be right on, but it depends. Sometimes, it's the burst speed that counts in trading, not just the steady CPU usage.

Part of me thought that this would be a conceptual template from which you would pare back (hence my final comment)--I just didn't expect you to say "mine" so quickly...

 

[pwn]

OK, let's try a simple test. You already have a PC and the trading software, right? Run it, then go to Task Manager and see the CPU usage. Tell us what kind of CPU you have now and how much of it is used.

The Phenom 9850 is a CPU made by AMD. It runs the same programs as the i7 920. If the programs are CPU-intensive (video encoding, Flight Simulator X, various math-intensive applications) then it's slower (by 30% or whatever, depending on benchmark). If the programs are less CPU intensive and all they really do is database queries and painting charts and Internet communications (e..g your trading programs, I think), even the Phenom 9850 would not be used at 100%. The same would be true for a Q6600, Intel's equivalent to that Phenom 9850. That is, the i7 setup would not be faster for that sort of thing, it would just be used at a lower percentage of its maximum abilities.

There are also faster CPUs like Phenom II 940, which also work in 790FX motherboards (i.e. with 4 slots for video cards, i.e. allowing 8 monitors). There's the Q9550 too, but that one is Intel and there are no Intel boards with 4 PCI-E slots AFAIK.

You can't really build it for $800 because the $800 includes only CPU/GPUs/RAM/MB, and you also need case/PSU/HDD/DVD/OS. Still, those are about $400 in total if you're not very picky, for a total of $1200.

Let's get one thing out of the way first: will you play games at all on this machine? If yes, are we talking about intensive things like shooters (Crysis, CoD, etc.), or just Solitaire/Tetris and so on?

Wow thank you for your time, first off. Second I will be playing zero games what so ever. I doubt I will even play solitaire.

As for these tests, I have no idea how to run them. I tried searching ways to clear CPU usage, but obviously came up unsuccessful.

Right now this computer is a little over a year old with the intel Q6700 CPU and 4 gig's of ram. I personally would rather go with Intel over AMD, based on by the reviews I have just read.

I would most definitely assume that my platform ( trading software ) is getting a lot of online data/influence.

The decision has been made about the screens - I want 8 ( eight ), but I was always under the impression that the more screens you have the slower the comp runs? ( This is all obviously speculation as I have never really understood computers to the fullest )


I would love to get this test going if someone can link me to a " how to " thread relating to " ways I can clear my CPU usage " or something along those lines...



Thank you,

Niko

 

[pwn]

Couple of further points

1. Fastest RAID is 0 not 10, and whether you need it or not is dependent on multiple factors
A. Are you more interested in application load time or are you saving data constantly
B. Are you interested in raw speed or speed and safety (as in not losing your data)
C. You dont need a seperate RAID card, most decent MOBO's have ICH10R controllers

2. Besides just looking at the CPU you need to
A. Stop all other applications so that when you look at the task manager CPU core display everything shows zero or very minimal

B. Now get your trading program running at full load, does 1 CPU core show activity or all of them?

C. If you are only loading one CPU then core count wont matter much (your trading platform isnt multi-threaded very well)

D. During step B you also need to look at page file activity and memory usage

3. Video - Yeah you dont need high end, just compatible

4. Is you application written for 32 or 64 bit, probably 32 bit, but if they have a 64 bit option thats good, just another piece of the puzzle

If your system uses max cores on whatever you have now then an i7 will most likely increase the performance, but again there are a lot of variables

If you want to pass your e-mail to me I can help you out via a webex session (take a look at your system real time) probably not until monday though.

1. A. Pretty much both. I need it to load fast but I am not sure if I need it SAVING data as much because there really is nothing to save unless I want to save my positions etc etc, but that I can do myself manually.

B. SAFTEY!!!! I would like speed, but saftey is key issue here I can not have this rig breaking down, must be very reliable.

2. I do not know how to do that, but I am going to find out here as soon as I get a link to a " how to " thread. Also I sent you my e-mail through PM.

- Edit -

I believe the software is made for 64 bit, it just came out a couple 2-3 months ago.


Thank you,

Niko

 

[pwn]

Up - We are almost there

 

[pwn]

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelp! lol

 

[aevm]

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelp with what exactly? If you ask a question we'll try to answer it.

How to check CPU usage: type Ctrl-Alt-Del, click Task Manager, click Performance. There will be a chart in there (or 2 charts or 4 charts, depending on CPU type and settings). Info about available memory is also shown on that screen (at least on XP, not sure about Vista right now).

Safety, as in the computer not crashing: if you buy reliable parts, don't skimp on the power supply, don't overclock, and keep the room temperature reasonable, it shouldn't be that hard.

You may need an uninterruptible power supply
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uninterruptible_power_supply
if electricity is flaky in your area and the occasional reboot is unacceptable, but most people do fine without one.

Anyway, since you're not into games at all, I'd abandon the HD 4850 X2 * 2 solution because it's $600 and consumes a lot of electricity. The whole i7/x58/ddr3 is way overkill here IMO.

Let me try to put a (much cheaper) list together. It will have to be based on AMD because I don't know any Intel motherboards with slots for 4 video cards.