Opinions on a trading build

daku7

Distinguished
Apr 7, 2010
2
0
18,510
hey guys, i need your opinion on a trading build i just made. there will be no gaming at all, and i will be connecting 4 22' monitors to the system.

parts will be bought from newegg:

CPU - Intel i7 920
Mobo - GIGABYTE X58A-UD3R
Ram - Mushkin Enhanced Blackline 6GB (3 X 2GB) DDR3 1333
GPU - HD5670 CF
PSU - SeaSonic S12 620W
HD - Samsung F3 1TB
Case - Antec 300

opinions on the CPU? is the 920 abit of an overkill for a trading system? what about the video cards? could i drop down to two HD5450?

thanks alot everyone!
 

tecmo34

Administrator
Moderator
CPU is acceptable (overkill in a sense but will allow you to run a ton of apps/windows at once)

GPU: You can drop down to the HD 5450 with no isssues, since you aren't gaming.

Case: I would look to catch a combo deal with the Antec 300 & the Antec EarthWatts EA-550, which is more than enough power for your system.
 
1) Start with the displays. I would suggest fewer, larger displays. The best would be two 2560 x 1600 30" displays. You will have more displayable pixels than 4 22" monitors You will also avoid over/under mounting issues. They are a bit pricey, but if this is your livelihood, then get the best.

2) Since the data is not fast moving like in a FPS game, you do not need a strong graphics card, and certainly nothing involving crossfire. Any dual DVI card will do.

3) I do not see the need for a quad cpu, look at a nice 32nm clarkdale, such as the i3-540. Even the i5-661 might be good.

4) Do get more than 4gb of ram if you will have many open applications. Ram is cheap.

5) Consider a good SSD for the OS, particularly if you can hold all of your active applications and data on it. Use a hard drive for storage and backup. If a ssd is not doable, consider the new 600gb velociraptor; it is the fastest conventional hard drive you can buy today.
 

daku7

Distinguished
Apr 7, 2010
2
0
18,510
thanks alot, i might consider switching to two 30' monitors instead.
and about the CPU, i need it to be able to run about 100 graphs at the same time at the fastest speed possible, wouldn't 4 physical cores will be able to handle that better than 2?
any recommendation on a good SSD?
 

A strong duo will have two faster cores plus hyperthreading. It is somewhat of a tradeoff.
I have no idea how cpu intensive running your graphs will be. If you are continuously updating 100 tasks, then perhaps a i7-930 is a better idea. For what it's worth, the $1100 i7-980X6 core cpu is the highest performing cpu available. Do you run some of these graphs now? Can you assess the cpu load? The windows performance monitor is your friend here.

It also might be a good idea to consider maxing out on ram. Ram is relatively cheap, and 100 copies of anything can add up. There is no performance negative with an excess of ram.

As to a good SSD, you can't go wrong with one of the IntelX25-? gen2 SSD's . The larger, the better. The marketplace is changing weekly, and better units at lower cost are showing up. Do not focus on synthetic benchmarks for SSD performance. Over time, some SSD's will lose their performance for various reasons as they get filled and reused. Today, stick with Intel. Tomorrow, who knows? Expect to see gen3 units in the fall so research carefully.