New PC setup for trading

[arbitrage16]

Currently looking to improve on my setup, which is a Windows latop on a 1.5ghz processor and 4gb of ram, so the argument can be made that anything is going to be a step up

I trade in-running mostly and will use the machine exclusively for trading. I believe that I will at most use 2 monitors on my eventual trading set up. My current monitor doesn't have HDMI but I'm assuming that graphics cards can absorb this.

Pretty certain I want SSD. Curious to know whether people think 8gb of ram is enough, or whether, given it's in-running, I should go 16gb?

Am currently looking at something like this: https://www.ebuyer.com/835411-punch-tec ... t-702-1013 or one of these https://www.chillblast.com/chillblast-f ... ory_id=448 though on the latter I'm not sure if that processor is sufficient?

But would really appreciate anyone with tech expertise who can offer any input. Many thanks

[Euler]

Increased RAM will allow you to store immediately such as charts and stuff, so higher capacity means more markets in essence.

Try and get something with a decent graphics card as that can make a big difference.

[arbitrage16]

Thanks Euler.

For anyone else, went with the following configuration. Punch technology were really helpful, definitely recommend.

- Gigabyte PCIe Wireless 802.11AC 1733Mbps Dual Band Wi-Fi / Bluetooth 5

- Contour 400W High Efficiency ATX PSU

- AMD Wraith CPU Cooler

- 1TB Seagate BarraCuda 7200RPM 3.5″ Hard Drive

- 240GB ADATA XPG SX8200 M.2 NVMe (3200MB/R, 1100MB/W) – 6x faster than SATA SSD

- 16GB DDR4 3000MHz ADATA XPG Flame Memory (2x8GB)

- NVidia GeForce GTX 1050 2GB GPU

- MSI B350M PRO-VDH Ryzen Motherboard

- AMD Ryzen 5 – 1600 3.2Ghz 6 Core CPU

[SeaHorseRacing]

Thanks Euler.

For anyone else, went with the following configuration. Punch technology were really helpful, definitely recommend.

- Gigabyte PCIe Wireless 802.11AC 1733Mbps Dual Band Wi-Fi / Bluetooth 5

- Contour 400W High Efficiency ATX PSU

- AMD Wraith CPU Cooler

- 1TB Seagate BarraCuda 7200RPM 3.5″ Hard Drive

- 240GB ADATA XPG SX8200 M.2 NVMe (3200MB/R, 1100MB/W) – 6x faster than SATA SSD

- 16GB DDR4 3000MHz ADATA XPG Flame Memory (2x8GB)

- NVidia GeForce GTX 1050 2GB GPU

- MSI B350M PRO-VDH Ryzen Motherboard

- AMD Ryzen 5 – 1600 3.2Ghz 6 Core CPU

Get a slightly higher GB graphics card imo bud.

[arbitrage16]

Gah, thought it was all sorted! I'm exclusively an in-running trader - is that card not sufficient?

[SeaHorseRacing]

Gah, thought it was all sorted! I'm exclusively an in-running trader - is that card not sufficient?

It should be ok. I just found when I was using 2gb just wasn’t up to scratch. 4gb would be ideal.

[BetScalper]

Currently AMD Ryzen chips have 13 known security flaws, 1 of which is very serious.

[Dublin_Flyer]

4gb graphics card for sure. Probably nothing wrong with 2gb, but that's about the minimum now and 2gb is moving towards redundancy with it being below par for good gaming, and inefficient for miners.

Regarding the M.2 SSD, I've recently gotten one to move my gaming files onto. It runs quite hot, so hot, that it's proximity to the GPU raises the temp of that too.

B350m-pro-vdh.JPG

Above is your proposed motherboard and how the M.2 SSD fits right under the GPU! Please direct your compliments towards the Nobel Prize For Art

I went from 56C under 60% load up to 76C constant, at times hitting 83C! So I got an Artic Accelero Mono cooler for my GPU card, now I can run anything at full load at 55C max, highly recommended.

As for motherboard/CPU, I'd say go for a mid to upper range motherboard from "last year/last season" with a mid ranging CPU from "last year/last season" It'll leave you with the space and time to upgrade your CPU to the max that'll fit your motherboard, max memory too, and GPU's will pretty much always be backwards compatible with a good motherboard. It's good future-proofing your investment in my view.

[arbitrage16]

Gah, thought it was all sorted! I'm exclusively an in-running trader - is that card not sufficient?

It should be ok. I just found when I was using 2gb just wasn’t up to scratch. 4gb would be ideal.

ok thanks SHR - when you say not up to scratch, how do you mean? On my current system which is an old laptop, towards the business end of a race in play there is a lot of lag and stutter and that's something I want to avoid

[arbitrage16]

4gb graphics card for sure. Probably nothing wrong with 2gb, but that's about the minimum now and 2gb is moving towards redundancy with it being below par for good gaming, and inefficient for miners.

Regarding the M.2 SSD, I've recently gotten one to move my gaming files onto. It runs quite hot, so hot, that it's proximity to the GPU raises the temp of that too. B350m-pro-vdh.JPG Above is your proposed motherboard and how the M.2 SSD fits right under the GPU! Please direct your compliments towards the Nobel Prize For Art

I went from 56C under 60% load up to 76C constant, at times hitting 83C! So I got an Artic Accelero Mono cooler for my GPU card, now I can run anything at full load at 55C max, highly recommended.

As for motherboard/CPU, I'd say go for a mid to upper range motherboard from "last year/last season" with a mid ranging CPU from "last year/last season" It'll leave you with the space and time to upgrade your CPU to the max that'll fit your motherboard, max memory too, and GPU's will pretty much always be backwards compatible with a good motherboard. It's good future-proofing your investment in my view.

Cheers. Given that I won't be gaming and only running other software/GT for inplay trading, I'm assuming it should be fine?

I think I've gone for fairly up to date cpu and motherboard so that I can have the faster SSD drive, so hopefully future-proof in that way...

[PDC]

ok thanks SHR - when you say not up to scratch, how do you mean? On my current system which is an old laptop, towards the business end of a race in play there is a lot of lag and stutter and that's something I want to avoid

Have Task Manager open showing your RAM levels during this period and see if that is topping out. I had this problem of lag and stutter and it turned out the CPU etc was running with loads of spare head room but it was my 4GB of RAM that was hitting it max and causing the bottle neck.

I spent £50 upgrading to 12GB and it fixed the issue and now I have no trouble at all.

It is worth looking at what programs are also running in the background that load themselves up at start up and Chrome uses a lot of resources if you have a few tabs open.

So before spending a lot of money this is worth checking as you may be able to fix the issue for little money, you will need to check that your motherboard can take more ram.

[arbitrage16]

thanks PDC, I did a full optimisation following a kind nerd on youtube for 30 mins and it made little difference so I think I'm maxing out what I've got

[Dublin_Flyer]

Try downloading AVG PC Tuneup, I think it's a free 30 day trial. It clears out a lot of redundant files, orphan files, it's basically a laxative for your PC and clears a whole heap of sh1t out. As long as your C drive or wherever your operating system is (I'm assuming Windows, and C drive) not too full, it'll bring it back towards max efficiency. CCleaner (formerly known as Crap Cleaner) is a very small file and it's brilliant for a regular flush of your system too.
Some of the better known antivirus programs like Symantecs Norton Antivirus (£££) are considered by many in IT to be more like a virus than a solution these days because they consume so many resources constantly checking your file system for issues. Spybot Search & Destroy (free) was another I had problems with, Malwarebytes anti-malware (free) I found to be much better.

Presently I use Avast as my main antivirus, it's free and very unobtrusive, Malwarebytes anti-malware (free version), and Ccleaner (free) for housekeeping. It makes it pretty easy to maintain if you put it on a list of your weekend chores the first weekend of the month; check batteries in smoke/carbon monoxide alarm, worm/flea dose the dog/cat, full pc virus scan when you're not using PC, backup pc, make extra copy of your good BetAngel automations (I save mine in a Gmail draft), check oil in car, tell significant other their hair looks nice, check the home-brew etc.

[arbitrage16]

Presently I use Avast as my main antivirus, it's free and very unobtrusive, Malwarebytes anti-malware (free version), and Ccleaner (free) for housekeeping. It makes it pretty easy to maintain if you put it on a list of your weekend chores the first weekend of the month; check batteries in smoke/carbon monoxide alarm, worm/flea dose the dog/cat, full pc virus scan when you're not using PC, backup pc, make extra copy of your good BetAngel automations (I save mine in a Gmail draft), check oil in car, tell significant other their hair looks nice, check the home-brew etc.

Think that was my first laugh generated by the BA forum, many thanks

[jordancaver123]

thanks