How do these computer specs look?

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furytrader
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How do these computer specs look?

Postby furytrader » 06 Oct 2011

I am looking to purchase a new research and trading machine. I plan on using MultiCharts on this computer, as well as some other programs. I'm hoping someone in this group can give me some insight into whether I'm headed in the right direction.

One of my goals is to consolidate all of my programs and research onto one machine (in the office) which I will then control remotely from home using GoToMyPC.com, as opposed to having multiple research machines and having to shuttle code between them all. Therefore, this machine should:

1) Be able to run fast and stable;
2) Be able to run several data-and-processor-intensive programs concurrently;
3) Be able to function with 3 monitors.

I have been spec'ing out computers from Dell and HP, but I'm not 100% clear on what are the most important parts of the machine. Is it reasonable to use a machine that is built for the "home office" or does it make economic sense to spend a lot more to get a "workstation" (most of the workstations I see are for video producing and graphic work).

Here is one computer I customized at HP:

HP Pavilion HPE H8Z
- Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium [64 bit]
- AMD Phenom II X6 1100T six-core processor [3.3 GHz, 3MB L2 + 6MB L3 Shared]
- 12GB DDR3-133Mhz SDRAM [3 Dimms]
- 1 GB AMD Radeon HD 6450 video card
- 1TB 7200 rpm SATA 3gb/s hard rive

I believe I'd have to get another video card to handle the third monitor (which is no big deal).

For those of you who are more computer savvy than me, are there any red flags on this system? Am I gonna regret buying this?

Thanks for any suggestions you may have!

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TJ
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Re: How do these computer specs look?

Postby TJ » 06 Oct 2011

here's a handy CPU power comparison chart:
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php

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Re: How do these computer specs look?

Postby jl12 » 06 Oct 2011

You might wish to look at the hard disk it can be a bottleneck

I run 2 mc machines both have 2 wd raptor disks in raid 0 but the newer pc has a small ssd as a cache,
its has z68 motherboard with with an intel sandbridge chip.

I noticed last night that it compiled my mc studies in about 30 mins instead of 50 for the other machine.

I saw this which might speed things up further

http://www.storagereview.com/ocz_revodr ... hts_review

-Just a couple of observations I'm not a techy

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Re: How do these computer specs look?

Postby txls » 17 Oct 2011

Smth. to consider (if you haven't bought it yet, that is):

-- amd systems utilize dual-channel memory controller, so it's best to stick with 2 or 4 dimms instead of 3;
-- it is possible to drive three monitors (and more) off one vga card. Radeons 5750/5770/6750/6770 and up should support Eyefinity and be able to drive 3 monitors via digital outputs. However, not all cards have all the necessary outputs.
-- new amd fx cpus could be worth waiting for, fx-8150 for instance.

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Re: How do these computer specs look?

Postby arjfca » 19 Oct 2011

I am looking to purchase a new research and trading machine. I plan on using MultiCharts on this computer, as well as some other programs. I'm hoping someone in this group can give me some insight into whether I'm headed in the right direction.

One of my goals is to consolidate all of my programs and research onto one machine (in the office) which I will then control remotely from home using GoToMyPC.com, as opposed to having multiple research machines and having to shuttle code between them all. Therefore, this machine should:

1) Be able to run fast and stable;
2) Be able to run several data-and-processor-intensive programs concurrently;
3) Be able to function with 3 monitors.

I have been spec'ing out computers from Dell and HP, but I'm not 100% clear on what are the most important parts of the machine. Is it reasonable to use a machine that is built for the "home office" or does it make economic sense to spend a lot more to get a "workstation" (most of the workstations I see are for video producing and graphic work).

Here is one computer I customized at HP:

HP Pavilion HPE H8Z
- Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium [64 bit]
- AMD Phenom II X6 1100T six-core processor [3.3 GHz, 3MB L2 + 6MB L3 Shared]
- 12GB DDR3-133Mhz SDRAM [3 Dimms]
- 1 GB AMD Radeon HD 6450 video card
- 1TB 7200 rpm SATA 3gb/s hard rive

I believe I'd have to get another video card to handle the third monitor (which is no big deal).

For those of you who are more computer savvy than me, are there any red flags on this system? Am I gonna regret buying this?

Thanks for any suggestions you may have!
Hello FuryTrader

Quick observation. You want to have three monitors, but your video card will support only two. I actually running a third monitor using a USB Graphic Card. Basically, this is a graphic card run by the usb port. This is not as fast as a regular video card, but good enough for Internet or word processing.

Look on Ebay, they cost between 50$ to 100$. Easy to install. Actually, I have ordered a second one to drive a fourth monitors.

If you want to install a regular video card, you will have to check if your board is equipped with more than one PCI Express slot. Mine doesn't have it so I'm using the USB solution

Martin

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furytrader
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Re: How do these computer specs look?

Postby furytrader » 19 Oct 2011

Thank you all very much for your helpful feedback. I went ahead and bought the following machine:

HP Pavilion HPE h8xt Series
• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium [64-bit]
• Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600 quad-core processor with Turbo-Boost [up to 3.8GHz, 8MB cache]
• FREE UPGRADE to 8GB DDR3-1333MHz SDRAM [2 DIMMs] from 6GB
• FREE UPGRADE to 1TB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive from 750GB
• 1GB DDR3 Radeon HD 6570 [DVI, HDMI. VGA adapter]
• 460W Power supply

The all-in cost, with free shipping, an extra $30 coupon discount that I found online and some other discounts, was just a shade under $1,000. I received the computer late last week and set it up over the weekend. So far, it's gone pretty well.

A few things to note on this experience:

1) Like TJ, one of the guys in my office recommended checking the http://www.passmark.com website to compare different CPUs. The CPU I ended up buying (the Intel Quad-Core I7-2600) had a CPU score 50% higher than the one I originally looked at (the AMD X6-1100T Six Core). Is it the fastest one out there? No, the Intel Xeon is faster but this one is pretty darn fast.

2) This guy also recommended not having HP install extra memory because adding RAM is pretty easy and HP will charge a lot. Once again, he was right - they wanted $120 to add 4GB of RAM. After using Kingston Memory's website to spec the right memory type, I went on Amazon.com and purchased an extra 8GB of memory for just under $60.

3) Arjfca is spot on too. When I opened the box to check out the inside, I was *shocked* to see that the motherboard had only one PCI slot, so I thought I was out of luck when it came to hooking up three monitors. However, I noticed that the graphics card had 3 outputs, although they were all outputs I wasn't terribly familiar with. However, a quick search on Amazon helped me to locate the necessary cords to convert all three outputs to either VGA or digital, so now I have all three monitors running great. I had looked into USB displays too, in case these adapters didn't work. However, so far they're working great.

Thanks again for all of your help!


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