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Very true, ideally. A lot of virus programs will definitely conflict with NinjaTrader. But unless you are an "expert" user, you should not attempt to run any PC without a virus scanner. Most people are not smart enough to be virus-scanner free and click on bad links, download stupid things, and infect their PC's
But yes, for expert user, stop all the extra pointless Windows services, no virus/malware app, etc -- can make a noticeable difference in responsiveness.
Personally, my trading PC is my main heavy-lifting PC. I do most everything on it, and it doesn't bother me. MultiCharts may take an extra 1 second to load, but I only 'load' it once a month anyway (after patch Tuesday reboot) and then it just stays open. I don't have a software firewall, so no socket performance issues -- I just use a hardware firewall. This PC also acts as one of my media servers with over 3TB of movies, plus handles most my email and web browsing, etc. None of which bothers me in any way, nor does it truly have any impact on my trading.
I bought these parts from the cheapest Web sources to co-exist with 3 existing Samsung SyncMaster 920B screens. Total cost after rebates was $1100. A local gaming geek charged $100 to build it.
MICROSOFT GFC-00599 Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit Software OEM
Asus M4A79XTD EVO Socket AM3/ AMD 790X/ CrossFireX/ A&GbE/ ATX Motherboard
CPU AMD|PH II X4 955 3.2G AM3 R
2 Western Digital 500 GB Caviar Black SATA 7200 RPM 32 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Desktop Hard Drive
CASE ACC THERMALTAKE
CASE ANTEC|P183
PSU ANTEC|EA650
MEM 2Gx2|GSK F3-10600CL8D-4GBHK
2 VGA ASUS | EAH4350 SL/DI/512M LP
Nothing like fanless video cards for real quiet performance.
That seems overpriced. You should look here for instance:
Newegg.com - HP Pavilion Elite HPE-250F Intel Core i7 860(2.80GHz) 8GB DDR3 1TB ATI Radeon HD 5770 Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (
Big Mike gave me one of his old systems he was no longer using, and also helped me get a great deal on my monitors. Hard to beat that deal!
This is my primary trading system; is only used for trading and e-mail; no games, no media server, etc.
CPU: Intel E6850 overclocked a bit to 3.6GHZ MEMORY: 8GB of memory VIDEO CARDS: Nvidia 8600GT and 8800GT connected to: MONITORS: 3 x Acer X233H 23"wide 1080P HARD DRIVES: 3 x SATA II 7200RPM / RAID 0 using on-board Nvidia software RAID controller (tried hardware with a 3Ware card and wasn't any faster) OPTICAL: PATA DVD-RW drive NETWORK: Gigabit wired to the router, wireless for backup/secondary CASE: Decent case which is pretty quiet considering I have a few fans on the drives UPS: BX1300G APC USB UPS (a must!) KB/MOUSE/WEBCAM: I added a nice back-lit keyboard and wireless laser mouse (Logitech performance MX, love it), as well as a Logitech webcam to finish it off. Using onboard audio. OS: Windows 7 x64 BACKUP: Iomega 1TB USB via Acronis for bare metal recovery if needed.
This is more than enough to run Outlook, Firefox, Skype, Jing, Remote desktop to second machine, and of course, Ninja 6.X with about 10 charts without any issues.
Yes, an older system, but still more than enough for trading and such.
Point being, any new machine with a decent hard drive and enough connections for your monitor(s) should be good to go.
If you have a good hardware firewall, and only install something like MultiCharts, DTN IQfeed API, and X-Trader along with a something like Chrome in only browse in incognito mode with no extensions and no Flash, then you can be reasonably sure you will not get infected by anything. But like I said, only the most experienced users need apply --- and even then, sometimes not worth the risk. You could definitely get by with disabling real-time scanning though and just go to a nightly scan, if you were super concerned about latency or delay.
Yes very true. Especially here in Texas, lots of thunderstorms. I have four UPS's in the house. One CyberPower 1400 is for protecting my DLP+stereo equip, ps3, dvr, etc etc, the other three are computer equip. I have two CyberPower 1400's for my main trading system, one for the PC and one for monitors+accessories (ext eSATA drives, 7.1 speaker system, lamp).
I have another CyberPower 1200 for my back wall which is redundant routers, dsl + cable modem, gigabit switch, wifi router, and a headless Q6600 system.
Again, overkill. You can get a nice CyberPower for $100 that will power your system and one monitor (your primary monitor), and your cable modem+router for probably 15 minutes or more. In my experience, the power is either out for 5-10 seconds, or its out for much longer than even for UPS's will last and you probably knew a storm was coming anyway and aren't concerned about trading.
It is cool to watch TV when the power is out though. lol. For about 10 minutes Be sure to give time for the DLP fan to cool down the TV after you turn it off before the UPS dies. Mitsubishi 65" DLP, I take care of her.
Anti virus itself can also be a nuisance as you never know what going to happen after one of those endless upgrading. My broker told me if I restrict the activity to just watching the charts then there is no reason to install any anti virus software.
Well, you can get some fancy dedicated hardware firewall's like these, but the basic options built-in to my router are sufficient for me to restrict what reaches my machine.
A software firewall means it runs locally on your machine, a piece of software.