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Looking at today's prices and CPU benchmark, the 1230 V3 is the best bang for the buck. Diminishing returns on investment (today) on the i7s. Thanks @Fat Tails.
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
linked below are several multi purpose configurations. Note the pricing is based on what we pay in Aus (too much!)
These provide a good foundation. You can easily swap a CPU over to a 1230 Xeon, SSD to a Crucial, and swap to an Asus mobo from Asrock if you want
ECC memory is expensive as are ECC capable motherboards. Including these options would significantly increase the overall price. Nice to have, but more for 24/7 system critical setups. Kind of system you go for when your trading is funding it.
That Thermaltake case you originally listed is really bloody small! It would make life really hard for you trying to build a system in it especially if using a dedicated video card that is capable of running multiple monitors.
As far as brands go, we've covered the power supply, RAM = no preference, just avoid 1.65V (Some Corsair and some Kingston). Motherboards - avoid MSI (absolute dogs to work with as far as fine tuning settings in the BIOS). ASUS have the best setup menu and include the best fan control for case fans. Asrock comes in second with regard to fan control and setup menu. Choose a board that has an Intel NIC (for internet)
Its easy to get caught up in a performance improvement here and there, and suddenly your budget increases several fold (I know, my system includes custom water cooling!). But, these little improvements here and there will have zero impact on your trading, trading software.
Personally, I like silence and case that doesn't get filled up with dust! I therefore paid extra for these features (my tower is right next to me on my desk and I cannot hear it)
The Haswell CPU's with onboard graphics will run 3 displays AS LONG AS the motherboard has displayport out. You'll either need a monitor with displayport or an ACTIVE displayport to DVI adapter ($30 for active adapter). The onboard graphics would be totally fine (an upgrade from what you are using now). Also you can go down to a micro ATX motherboard and micro ATX case to bring down cost - no need for full size of not running extra devices on the motherboard.
My advise you'll need 16GB RAM standard to save yourself from upgrading, it will help when you're mutlitasking on the PC, otherwise if you're trading more than one line at a time or doing other things on the machine you'll probably see a slow down (depending on the platform to the extent).
Secondly 120GB SSD should be a bootdisk, you should also go for a larger capacity 2nd harddrive. I have that setup and helps boot in seconds and be able to store a lot of historical level II price data - which I use both for backtesting and practice trading.
I have built a couple of trading computers. Your system looks fine. I have had very good success with AMD processors and they are significantly cheaper. I was an Intel fan(still like them) until I tried an AMD on a trading system a couple of years back and it has worked like a charm. Just saying if you are on a budget.
Also.. this case for about $50 is really good.. Quality good, plenty of room, and good ventilation. Comes standard with 2 fans and you can add more..
If I redo my monitor setup, it will be with a less quantity of larger screens. No bezel to be concerned with. I picture in my head (4) 42" stacked 2 over 2. That is about max left to right and up and down that I can view comfortably. And, it would allow me to move back a few feet. I just reworked my trade room and mounted the screens off the desk, slightly lower than the desk top so that the screen edge lines up with my line of sight, which gave me about 12" more distance from the screens and lowered the upper screen about 4". It feels much better, but I still feel like pushing my chair back sometimes.
I have been running same system with AMD almost all day for about 3 years with 2 vid cards and 4 monitors for trading. It is fan cooled via factory fan and I have had no problems. Complete system(ex monitos and keyboard) was about $550 so I am very pleased. I run 2 data feeds and 2 platforms constantly with at least 6 futures symbols charting at all times.. Not even a blip..
No games or other stuff.. but for me it has worked great..
