# Hardware for analysis



## Synergy (27 December 2010)

Interested to hear what systems people are using for their analysis.

I'm after a new computer and am trying to decide whether to go for a powerful laptop, or whether to put together a purpose built desktop.

Ideally I'd use a laptop for the portability, but it would not be as powerful as the desktop and bang for buck, the desktops are better value. Laptops normally can't handle as much RAM and don't get the top end processors. 

Programs I'd be using would be excel, amibroker and maybe metastock/tradesim.

Are people happy with their curent setups or do they wish they had something faster?


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## Gringotts Bank (27 December 2010)

I'd get a cheap one of both.  I've a low-mid end spec laptop and desktop which are fine for me.

Occasionally I want more processors for memory-consuming backtests, but I just save that for when one of the computers is free and I'm using the other one.

AB is so quick and efficient you could almost run it on a Commodore 64!

Ways to save: 1.  build your own - so easy even I can do it.   2.  Forget the $400 graphics card and just use the onboard GPU.

Cheap laptops and great service at MLN in Richmond, if you're in Melb.  I don't mind giving them a plug since they were quite helpful to me.


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## pixel (27 December 2010)

Synergy said:


> Interested to hear what systems people are using for their analysis.
> 
> I'm after a new computer and am trying to decide whether to go for a powerful laptop, or whether to put together a purpose built desktop.
> 
> ...



 Too fast is never fast enough. Same with memory size.
A year ago, I had a new desktop computer custom-built - cost incl Windows 7 Home Premium $998.
Specs: 


64 bit of course (you hardly get anything else these days)
4GB of RAM - sometimes I wish I'd taken 8 or even 12, but I've since found that a 16GB USB memory stick, set up as boost cache, effectively doubles the memory.
i5 chip - could/should've taken the i7, although the system gadget rarely moves above 20% CPU usage; it's the memory usage that rarely shows less than 60%
dual-head video card - OK for me; I have a second system also with two monitors
the only oversized component is the HDD; but you hardly save anything by going under 500GB
This beast is  generally sufficient for Market Analyser with several watchlists, charts, etc; Pulse online ditto with watchlist, portfolio and order panels, market depths, sale tables, chart; two more online brokers' order and portfolio panels working via the Firefox browser; extra tabs for ShareScene and two other news services; Windows Live Mail; and Excel with my own portfolio and accounts systems; plus, when needed, the Option Analyser and other ad-hoc spreadsheets, and a graphics package to publish chart images and/or screenshots for you guys at ShareScene and trading mates.
Make sure you have enough USB ports. I have 12, 7 of which have permanent occupants: memory stick, mouse, 2 printers, external HDD (backup/mirror), wifi. and headset.


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## TabJockey (27 December 2010)

Okay I am in the know when it comes to computer hardware, definitely super geek when it comes to that area (misspent youth!)

When it comes to laptops, if you want something beasty and portable you are going to fork out for it. You can get something moderately grunty (i5, 4gb+ ram, dedicated graphics) in a laptop for 1k but the battery life is going to be all of an hour and a half. Probably it will also be a brick. 

I have a sony Vaio with a ultra low voltage cpu in it which gives me 8 hours of solid use (wifi on) but it is not appropriate for back testing and forget about multi screens. Suits me when im not at home though, weighs like 1.1kg.

For desktops, you can get allot of power for a bargain price. Any midrange + cpu amd or intel is going to absolutely FLY along but make sure you dont skimp on the motherboard. Get a more expensive gigabyte or asus mobo, it will have many features that you will use and provide a rock solid base for the rest of your components.

Get 8gb of ram. If its for a new pc itl be ddr 3 and pretty fast, no need to think about ram timings or anything like that you wont notice the difference. You just want to make sure that you can do a few things at once and never run out of ram.

Spend $100 on a power supply. If you get someone else to build you a computer or you get it from a shop, they will give you a cheap power supply. These yum cha boxes can explode and take every single component in your pc with them, including your data. I have seen so many problems caused by cheap PSU's., cataclysmic or not.

Onboard GPU's are good these days, good if your trying to save money but fairly useless if you want to set up more than one screen. Just get a low mid range card for about $170 and that will be able to handle anything you want to do. ATI eyefinity is good I use it myself to run multi screens effectively.


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## pixel (27 December 2010)

Thanks TJ,
sounds like good advice.

Although I'm pretty green myself when it comes to *hard* ware, I've always stipulated (but had to take the shop geeks' word for it) that I wanted a quality power supply and a well-ventilated mini tower.
The tower was supposed to be a Coolermaster, but at the time they had a delivery bottleneck and we settled for an Antec 300 box. The mobo is Asus P7P55D LE with an i5-750 cpu.

Video card is an ATI Radeon HD4550; all I can say - it's fast enough for  all my graphics needs, including ABC iView and fullscreen Youtube videos.

PS: Windows Experience Index for Aero desktop performance is 4.7; all other indices are 6 and above. Business graphics score is 6.2

The only teething problem: I had to upgrade the BIOS as the default refused to work on a wifi. Therefore my new box spent the first few weeks hard-wired to the router, until I asked Google the right question.

One item I'm uncertain about, but which I suppose I should take an interest in: *Where can I find the size of the power supply? Preferably, without opening the box?*


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## TabJockey (27 December 2010)

pixel said:


> Thanks TJ,
> sounds like good advice.
> 
> Although I'm pretty green myself when it comes to *hard* ware, I've always stipulated (but had to take the shop geeks' word for it) that I wanted a quality power supply and a well-ventilated mini tower.
> ...




Size is usually not the issue, if your computer is running, then the psu has enough wattage to run the PC. Its more to do with the quality of the rails. What will happen if these rails are struggling is that a 12v rail will not give 12v to your computer components, ie it will give a wide range of voltages that will cause instability.

You cant check your PSU model and wattage without opening the case, but its very easy to take off the side and look at the sticker, really nothing to it and you cant do any damage as long as you dont touch any components inside.

But what you can do is go into the CMOS and under the "Pc Health" section or something along those lines, you will be able to see your voltages in real time. It will say something like 12v - 12.012v . If you get large variances, or big changes, anything more than 5% can cause problems or indicate low quality components that could blow.

Also you could have a cheap psu that will run perfectly with rock solid voltages untill you get a power surge and it blows. This happened to me a few years back.

But hey if you dont notice any symtoms, you probably only have a 1/10 or so chance of having problems with your cheap psu, you will probably be ok.

With regards to case ventilation, its not really that important for consumers but you have to keep the fans running. What happens is dust builds up and stops the fans, once your fan stops you start over heating. Sometimes you see people who have computers where the fans died in the winter and the computer barely survived (just crashing every now and again) but when summer came the whole thing melted and never worked again. Cpu fan is the most important but usually the most robust. the GPU fan usually packs up first in my experience and those modern cards run REALLY HOT (90C not unusual operating temps).

I think in the modern world its best to keep as much data on the cloud as you reasonably can.


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## pixel (28 December 2010)

Thanks again TJ;
You're certainly on the ball regarding the CPU fan and dust.
Having that checked - and cleaned and re-cemented the connection between heatsink and cpu - cost me $50 hardware maintenance, but saved me the cost of a new computer.

Can't say much about the quality of our power, we've had a few brown-outs, which should be less of a problem; I know that so-called surge protectors are rarely what they're spruiked to be, but I still have them everywhere between wall socket and electronic gear. The one here in my office *should be *somewhat better than the el-cheapos you may find in the hardware stores' bargain bins. We got it from our Regional Green Power branch of the State Government Department for Power Saving.

I ran a PC Health report in Windows 7, but that only checked software issues and had a whinge about Aero being a little wasteful. Funny that - I was urged to install it at a recent update.
Voltage etc I'll have to check in BIOS when I reboot later. Shall update this if there is anything to report.

Thanks again and Cheers, sez Pixel.


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