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Broker: Advantage, Trading Technologies, OptionsCity, IQ Feed
Trading: CL, NG
Posts: 1,038 since Jul 2010
Thanks Given: 1,713
Thanks Received: 3,863
OK, thanks to both you and Mike! Some great advice. I've always stuck with the well known brand names for PC's but have used Dell the most and I guess I'm letting that tarnish my perspective of PC's which is probably silly to do. I'm going to give this some more thought because I feel like I'm going against the grain with the Mac Pro route now. Apple's hardware/software is indeed amazing but there certainly are a some give and take. I dream of the day when NT and CQG some how make a Mac friendly version of their software . I won't hold my breath though! I haven't tried VMware Fusion, maybe that will be just what I need to bridge it all together!
Thanks again for your help!
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
I have zero experience with Trading Computers (company). But if they are using Falcon systems, then they should be producing some really top quality builds.
The only thing is, for me, for a trading system, I don't want bleeding edge performance with huge overclocks. I want quiet and 110% stability. But I imagine this is a normal request for them, so I would at least hit them up and see what they offer.
Generally, if you can find someone who is not mass-producing systems, but is taking quality mainboards, video cards, quality drives, quality psu, and a nice quality well insulated noise reducing case, that takes the time to properly route cables and burn in the system, then that is really all you need.
When you get further along, why not create a new thread and post the specs and price of what you are quoted and let people give you their opinions before you pull the trigger.
I own a lot of AAPL shares, I'm on the news sites a lot and I buy a lot of Apple stuff.
I mean a lot.
I switched to Mac OSX because I was running redhat at that time and I could use all my scripts I made on MAC OS X since that is FreeBSD a unix compliant which linux is not.
I never ever regretted the switch, instead I'm personally responsible for at least moving 50 people from windows to apple.
If you would use a computer for personal use or for a small business there is only 1 way to go and that is MAC OS X. It's rock solid, it's awesome, it's way more productive than windows and it's FAST. Big business run dedicated windows software and we, traders, are a special breed that all our software is on windows besides a few mac os x versions.
I ran bootcamp with our tools because I only had macs. Now I digged up an old pc I had laying around in the basement I used for flight simulator during my Instrument Rating, I had connected all external devices who worked only with specialized window flight simulator software. I put it a 1200Watt specialised power supply, an SSD and a special cpu siltent cooler and added a 4 port video card without running cooler (passive) now you don't hear that pc. I still own my macs but switched to a dedicated trading machine. I put my order on my mac and all my charting is on that dedicated pc.
There is nothing wrong with bootcamp on mac, all works, the keyboard and mouse thing was fixed with the latest bootcamp drivers. You can run xp, windows7 at native speeds, it will run blazing fast and stable and you will be able to run mac os x !
OTOH, if you need a computer dedicated to trading, make one your own, but buy the expensive parts who make no noise at all, and get good screens. I also have 2 video cards in my mac pro 8 cores but they make a lot of noise.
Apple made my life easier, I wouldn't want to miss it for home use. There's nothing innovative on the windows side, they are always running behind. They copy things shameless. It sucks.
Broker: Advantage, Trading Technologies, OptionsCity, IQ Feed
Trading: CL, NG
Posts: 1,038 since Jul 2010
Thanks Given: 1,713
Thanks Received: 3,863
Thanks MetalTrade! I was hoping to hear from you as I read that you were running Bootcamp on a Mac. That's some great insight. Were the video cards you are referring to the ATI cards? I'm not too savvy with building computers so, I fear I would mess up royally on a custom build. My building extent is installing a new hard drive and video card, Lol! I'll definitely update on what I end up doing here.
I'll admit that I love Apple's stuff as well and overpaid for the iPhone when it first came out among other products they've come out with. Their stock has been resilient through everything. I'm sure it's been a great investment for you.
Hi, they are gforce nvidea cards. If you are not technologicly savy, just order a mac pro with some screens. You will love it and wont regret it.
I also sell my apple stuff after 3 to 4 years on ebay, getting at least 50% of the original price for them. So taking this into account the apple stuff aren't more expensive, they are much CHEAPER than regular hardware.
Like others here, I'm a Mac guy, minus when I'm on my work PC, like now...
After reading this thread, and others, I'm convinced that it is prudent to have a dedicated PC for a trading machine. I was hoping that would not be my final conclusion, but it makes sense...
PB - What route did you decide upon? I'm inclined to go to a local Fry's Electronics store and build my own PC, like I did when I was lot younger... But as Mike said, this first entails a fair amount of research into the various components. If there is a recent computer build thread, that would be great to know...
sometimes I am a bit surprised that people are so quick to rush into building their own PC's... can you build your own mac? I only say that because think of the amount of time that will need to go into the effort... the amount of research, ordering components, putting them together, and worst of all the lack of warranty and support since you are the warranty and support. Many traders to it to "save money" or to "be hands on" but to me that is all a waste of time as your time is better spent researching and trading (not about computers, but whatever you trade).
What will you save? $500-800??? not really, because the quality components are more expensive.. that bigger PowerSupply will cost you more, the better memory will cost you more, the better drives, motherboard, heatsink, they will all cost you more and you wont still get it done right but still have had spent hours upon hours researching and putting them together and testing to make sure it works all ok and returning parts that might not work due to instability, etc.
When you look at the time effort, it is a waste of time as it will consume a lot more time in terms of opportunity lost than what you "saved".
did you know falcon systems aka tradingcomputers.com V12 (i5 3.3Ghz 4GB) starts at $1300??, better yet the F22 (i5 3.71Ghz 8GB) is $1700?? or even better, what I want to get but dont really need (going for the new laptop instead) the F-37X i7 4.5GHz 4Core+HT with Predator 6 Way Display 16GB RAM, 80GB SSD and 2TB SATA goes for around $3K? and it all comes with a 3 year warranty and it is guaranteed to be stable.
I dont know, maybe I am alone on seeing things this way... anyhow, just my opinion that putting your own together is a bit of waste of time... but even if yoy had the time you cant compete with the vendors providing good quality... as I said, can you build your own mac?
. I won't hold my breath though! I haven't tried VMware Fusion, maybe that will be just what I need to bridge it all together!
