Hi Rob, You don't need two cards. You need one card with two DVI outputs, plus a DisplayPort output. I've gone with ATI Radeon 5770. What makes it work (very easily and very well with three monitors) is an *active* (*not* a passive) DisplayPort to DVI adapter (another 100 dollars roughly). Three connectors on that adapter: to the DisplayPort on the card, to the monitor's DVI, and to the USB for power.
The adapter is by far a cheaper alternative than buying a DisplayPort capable monitor, but you could go that way. With the adapter, however, you can choose three identical monitors, which makes some configuration stuff easier. I have only 4 GB of memory. "Only". Some people will think they need more, but most people will not utilize more. (i7-860 seems fine, too, but some people will want to venture out farther on the curve, and I understand.) You will hear from some people that a passive adapter will work. They are slightly nuts; it will not. Spend the money for an ATI-certified active adapter, and life becomes absurdly simple. Yuki Saturday, July 24, 2010, 6:48:14 PM, you wrote: R> Paul, R> That was super helpful. Thank's very much. R> Yeah, the little bit I'm stuck on at the moment is the video R> card. I need to run 3 monitors so I guess I need two cards. I R> don't need anything spectacular on the 3D front clearly. Just a R> fast an solid card for charting etc. Any suggestions...? Or does R> your original choice still apply. R> I notice you put in 12Gb of memory!!! Wow. I thinking of reducing R> the memory of my new system. I have been running an 8Gb memory Mac R> Pro and the most memory I have seen myself use if about 2.7Gb of R> physical memory... so I'm thinking 6Gb will be enough. Maybe you R> have some very large AB databases or lots of symbols...? (I only look at about 30). R> Thanks again R> Rob R> --- In [email protected], Paul D <notanaiqgen...@...> wrote: >> >> Hi Rob and other system builders, >> >> In 2009 I built my own i7 920 and overclocked it to a very very stable 3900 >> megahertz. I have XP 64 bit on it. >> >> In a Tradestation forums thread I posted a very detailed shopping list from >> Newegg of all the parts I used (more or less) and show that it can be done >> very >> cheap. In my opinion, the 920 version is (or at least was) the most >> affordable >> in terms of bang for your buck once overclocked. I had some problems getting >> things cool enough with all 8 virtual cores going, so I turned off the >> hyperthreading and just run with 4 cores. >> >> >> Attached is a PDF of my shopping list complete with colorful pictures of my >> i7 >> 920 build during and after. FYI, I was going for lowest price rather than >> the >> very nicest stuff, though I did not skimp on mobo, power supply, CPU, or >> memory. >> The case, graphics card, and fans were not the best (or quietest). >> >> >> >> Hope this helps. >> >> Paul >> >> >> >> ________________________________ >> From: Rob <sidharth...@...> >> To: [email protected] >> Sent: Thu, July 22, 2010 2:38:22 AM >> Subject: [amibroker] New System Question >> >> >> Hi TJ, >> >> I am considering building myself a new computer system. Basically I am >> running >> AB on a Mac Pro right now. 8GB Ram (ram is not one my constraints). I am >> running >> 2 x quad core Intel Xeon X5365 2.99 Ghz processors. >> >> I use AB for real time day trading... (not backtesting)... but I am pushing >> the >> core I run AB on to the max pretty much (My performance indicator in AB runs >> pretty consistently between 200 - 260%... I also have another 4 charts >> running >> on another instance of AB to utilise another core. >> >> Question is, in building a new system, what should I be looking for maximise >> AB >> performance....? Obviously I am looking at the i7 range of processors. >> However, >> given that I can only utilise one core per instance of AB (and I want to run >> as >> few instances of AB as possible), should I less concerned with going for >> more >> cores and more concerned with perhaps overclocking the cores I do have...? >> >> I could go the whole hog and overclock a Intel Core i7-980X Extreme Edition >> to >> 4Ghz... I don't know if that would be overkill given there would be a lot of >> processing power I couldn't access....? (although having 12Mb of onboard >> cache >> looks attractive since I could run larger DB's in AB more quickly). >> >> Any other critical issues I should be thinking of in terms of speed running >> AB...? >> >> Thanks for your time. >>
