[james_gsx]

Well... Unfortunately I didn't build the computer. A lot of things came up at once and I didn't have time. I also had a change of heart and decided I wanted all my trading expenses to start coming from trading gains and not a bottomless pocketbook.

But... I was at Best Buy yesterday getting a feel for what was out there. I was planning on buying a new laptop and using my current computer strictly for trading. But instead I found a Gateway with an AMD 9500 quad core processor (not sure if AMD is a good thing right now, but I've had great success in the past), 3bg of ram, 500gb hard drive, and the video card was able to support 2 monitors (all I use) straight out of the box. I got it for $700, which I thought was a pretty good deal. So I went ahead and bought it, and it came with Vista Premium. So far, I like it.

[jay bird]

I am considering purchasing a custom built laptop from trading computers. Has anyone had any experience with their products.
It is difficult to compare apples to apples but it appears that the custom built computers have the same components as the mass produced computers. The only difference appears to be in the price tag , the custom computers are quite a bit more expensive.
Thanks all.

I've heard that xview is a great place for this, but only if you have the $$$ to spend.

-fs

[Simple]

Just a thought for anyone working through this thread.

The quad isn't needed for almost any trading app and the latest core2duo's give you better outright cpu speed with much lower power consumption for lower bucks than the q6600s. Try an 8400.

Also the 8000 series graphics cards are not really needed for anything except the latest games at highest resolution so you can save a bit on dollars and power consumption with the 7300GS or 7900GS instead.

Finally the Raptor and (newest) Velociraptor hard drives are extremely fast which again is almost irrelevant to trading. In return for speed they are noisy, power hungry and have lower bang for the buck (the sweet spot for hds seems to be about 500GBytes from Seagate or Western Digital (possibly less reliable than SG).

Green is good; so is quiet