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I was bored so I configured a PC for those who plan to build one in the near future that is optimized for trading. The key aspect of the PC is silence and below you can see the configuration:
Chassi
Fractal Design Define R5 - Probably the most silent case on the market at the moment
Motherboard
Asus Z97-A/USB 3.1 - Maybe a little overkill but it has USB 3.1
CPU
Intel Xeon E3-1270v3 - Forget the i7, this one has 8MB L2-cache and it's cheaper
CPU-cooler
Be-Quiet Dark Rock 3 for silence
GPU
Nvidia NVS 510 - Futureproof to run 4x4k monitors when they get cheaper
RAM
Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR3 PC12800/1600 MHz 2x8GB
Out of curiosity - would something like a decent i3 work in this build as well?
At work I have two fast i5s while my home setup with a Phenom X4 955 at stock clocks is much faster. Purely due to having more than enough ram and a SSD. Most i3s would be significantly faster than the Phenom and I have not run into any performance issues.
Are people running into any performance issues that necessitate using Xeons or i7 CPUs using standard trading software?
Edit: I should add that I will be having a custom laptop built thus am interested to see whether I really need a i7-4800MQ in there
Seeing how the cost difference in such a system is pretty tiny, why buy such a slow CPU? If you are using your computer as your primary outlet to perform your job and earn your income, then you generally want to invest a couple extra bucks to get the best.
If it is a hobby then sure, anything will work, just the older and cheaper -- the slower it will be.
I just noticed that most of the bottlenecks seem to be RAM and regular hard drives. Once I addressed those even an older / slower CPU works without any performance issues. This is with several websites open, IB TWS open, Excel (linked via API to TWS) and Outlook open and with iTunes playing in the background.
I also edited my above post to include that I am looking at getting a custom-built laptop. My preference is the i7-4800MQ, but I know that I won't come close to needing all of its performance potential.
Therefore just curious if people are actually hitting the limits of something like an i3 and not just running into RAM or HDD bottlenecks.
I am not sure it's fair to say "works without performance issues". I blew up (set ablaze) my primary i7 workstation a couple weeks ago (details in my journal thread) and had to downgrade to an emergency backup i5 temporarily as importing high-end hardware is difficult in Ecuador. The SSD (1TB Samsung 850 Pro) and memory (32GB) are identical, but there is a definite performance decrease. I can't even imagine an i3, or a Phenom? I love AMD, but come on... this is business, buy an i7 for the cost of a good steak and wine dinner.
For me, seconds matter. If I have to reload my charting platform, I don't want to be waiting. I don't want to wait, ever. I spend money on hardware because it's relatively cheap, one missed trade because of cheap or slow hardware would cover the cost of the hardware several times over.
I understand most people are just doing this as a hobby and don't want to spend any money.
Would there be much difference in hardware between building a new PC focusing on trading with traditional software (eg: NinjaTrader, Sierra etc) as opposed to building one that is focused on large + fast data analysis which is ultimately still used for trading via an API.
So I guess put another way, the one type of trading would involve a lot of charts (maybe the graphics card is important?), the other type of trading would involve large databases and the need to process data quickly (maybe things like graphics is not as important?).
Would you essentially be looking for the same type of hardware, or would some things be more important than others in one of the scenarios?
It depends on the situation. For execution only I don't think it makes any significant difference between the i3 and the i7/xeon. However, it will have a significance when you do backtesting or when you have multiple charts open.
FXCM's platform (marketscope) with 8 instruments open at the same time takes 5-15% of the cpu on my HP Elitebook 840 G2 which has a i5-5200u(Dual core) and it's connected to a dockingstation with 2 monitors at 1920x1080. But I'm running on a demo account so I don't know if it's makes any difference with a live account.
For me who lives in Sweden the approximate price is at 13000 SEK. I don't know how cheap you get the build in the US but it should be around 1500-2000$
Hmm, I don't know if I understood your question right but I'll try. Yes, I would look for the same hardware.
For charting and having multiple monitors you need a GPU that supports many monitors, which is why I chose the NVS510 in my setup. It can run displays up to 4x4k monitors and if you run more monitors then you can have multiple GPU's. Alternatively you can go for nvs 310/315 which is cheaper, if your displays are up to 1920x1200. The most important aspect for the GPU is that it doesn't need to be good at 3D performance(games). We only need 2D performance when looking at charts.
For the process of data, the most significant part is the internet connection and the CPU.