Build for Currency Trading

[digitsdad]

Hello all,
I am building a computer for Currency Trading, hoping to get some input. I want to get whatever I need this weekend, hoping to get decent prices.
I have a case and 650w power supply, a few years old. Also have Win 7 and Win 10.
Have a 120gb ssd that I thought I would put the O/S on, then use a larger ssd or a platter for data etc. I have a couple low-end Dell 24" monitors, 1920 x 1080.
I want something relatively fast and robust, but I don't need the bleeding edge.
So, I need:

CPU -Prefer Intel
CPU cooler
Video Card -needs to support 3 or 4 monitors
Motherboard -Prefer Gigabyte or MSI
RAM -32mb
Hard Drive
Optical Drive
Keyboard and Mouse

Budget around $1000-$1200, USA
Default speeds

Thanks to any and all for the help

 

[vailr]

Does the existing system case include front USB 3.0 ports? If not, you may want to upgrade that, to one that includes the feature.
For a multi-monitor setup, you'd need to match the video card output ports with the monitor's input ports. So: upgrading everything (monitors & video card) to Display Ports may be something to budget for. Or maybe: 2x Display ports from the video card, and use two of the Intel video outputs for the other two monitors. Specific motherboard video outputs can vary between the different models, but an HDMI port is usually included, in addition to one or two of the other port types: DVI, VGA, or Display Port. I would recommend not buying a motherboard that includes the outdated VGA port.

There's also dollar savings available by picking a non-"K" Intel i7 or i5 CPU's (such as the i7-6700) and one of the H150 Skylake series boards, if not intending to overclock.
I'd suggest picking one of Newegg's Gigabyte or MSI Skylake boards that include an Intel LAN port and a Realtek ALC1150 audio chip.
An Intel "9" series Haswell board would also make for decent & somewhat less expensive system, depending on the budget.
An X99 board would increase the price too much to really be a viable alternative.

 

[digitsdad]

Thanks Vailr, I had not considered the usb port problem. So, I will need a case as well. The monitors have vga and DVI-D ports, I had presumed to use the DVI ports. In fact I may get a couple of better monitors, and I wonder what would be a good video card for my purpose. Something around $200-$250 I would think will take care of my needs.I do not intend to OC, since I am looking more for reliability than utmost speed. You mention the x99 motherboards, which I don't know much about, but the money isn't really a problem. Could you tell me a couple of their benefits vs. a Skylake board. I hadn't thought about a sound card. I do have some decent speakers. Maybe spending a few bucks for a sound card would make it worthwhile? I will be listening to podcasts, market audio etc.
Anyway, thanks again for the advice, I will post my shopping results in a few days, and the build outcome in a week or two.

 

[vailr]

The Realtek ALC1150 audio chip is of sufficient quality that adding in a sound card would not provide much extra benefit.
Two benefits of the X99 chipset would be: support for 8x (instead of only 2x or 4x) DDR4 memory sticks, and also allow for installing a CPU with more cores than a Skylake's number of CPU cores. However: neither feature would really benefit your usage situation.

 

[digitsdad]

Thanks again vailr.
And i forgot to say happy thanksgiving to you and all.

 

[proggy123]

At the risk of stating the obvious - you've thought about backups right ? I've built a few boxes for day-traders and the most important thing is to have a plan for what to do if your machine dies during a trading day. If you're trading a few times a week, this is not a big deal. But if you're doing enough volume or holding intra-day positions, it might be worth having a plan (backup laptop etc) to be able to keep working even if the machine dies.

The other component to this is getting 2 different internet connections so that if your ISP has a hiccup, your trades are still getting through. So a motherboard with 2 ethernet ports might be something you want to look into.

Similarly for data, depending on how important your order logs etc. are you might want to reduce the fallout from spinning drives dying by looking into RAID or an offsite backup once a day/hour - again, all depends on the volume/frequency of your trades.

 

[digitsdad]

Thanks proggy123, i do have a laptop that i figured i would put my platform on, and of course i should be able to reach my broker by phone. I figured i will use cable and dsl as a backup. As far as RAID or offsite backup, i sort of shamefully put that too low on my priority list, but i will make a decision.