PC spec

Can anyone please advise me on PC spec?  I need a new computer anyway, but want to make sure it will be the very best configuration I can buy in order to get the most out of SQ.  My budget is approx. £2500.

Is it about max ram and cores?  I will also use it for work which means MS office (esp. excel) and some photoshop and other adobe suite – but no movie editing/watching and I am not a gamer.  SQ will probably be the most demanding application. I also use MT4, and no doubt will soon wish to run multiple instances of MT4.  The computer will be on 24/7 (or 24/5), for SQ use and also running some MT4 EAs.  So I plan to get a battery backup / UPS in case of power cuts.  In terms of cooling will air cooling will be sufficient?  It will be sited at the back of my shop, and I plan to use Chrome Remote Desktop or Teamviewer to access it via laptop in the evening.

I’m considering buying a custom-built one online; but think I will take plunge of buying the components and assembling myself, guided by eg. youtube tutorials or a udemy course, which is a little scary but something I’ve always wanted to do.  My current knowledge is very limited, so the learning curve will be steep but will benefit in long run.

Really appreciate any help on recommended configurations for SQ.

trading machine need to be a VPS, i absolutely dont reccomend you to use the same machine for generating and trading

about the generation machine – look at the ebay for some refubrished workstations – some dual xeons should do the job…and you will not spend too much money for it

if I can make my small contribution … absolutely vps in trading …
as for workstations, be careful with the consumption of electrical energy .. they easily reach 1000 watts h24 7 days, obviously because you have to push the workstation to the maximum … SQX wants so many resources and you want it to run at the most obviously at least in Italy electricity it’s not cheap about 0.25 euros per KWH for 24 hours ……. but you can’t have everything you need to choose

Wait a month and get the next gen threadripper

Ryzen 9 3850X
16/32
4.3GHz
5.1GHz
135W

$499

Thanks for your replies hankeys, Gianfranco & mabi!

Re. a separate computer from generation please, I presume this is because generation is best performed on a home computer due to hardware cost, whereas trading is best performed on a VPS due to latency (& stability of internet connection & power), or are there additional reasons?  Re. latency, excuse my newbieness but is this important even if I am trading on timeframes higher than M5?  I mainly trade H1 down to M15, although I do plan to look into M5 trading but not really what you’d call ‘scalping’.  (And my fibre broadband is pretty good, reliable power, and I always use broker stops).

Thanks for the power consumption warning.  I have not yet picked all the components to see what maximum wattage of PSU I will require, …perhaps it will be as much as 1000w. If SQX is going to run the components to near their max wattage, I will multiply this by my electricity tariff to see what I need to budget.  I will probably have the PC running 24/6, so will look at PSUs with a good efficiency rating and reliable brand.  If you think water-cooling is required over a good quality air one (I hear noctua is good) please let me know.

Mabi, many thanks for the heads up re. the imminent Ryzen chip!  I googled it…looks a great fit and seems v reasonable too.  Worth waiting for.

Hi , There is no reason to rent a VPS to trade Forex strategies made by SQx.  I have it but regret that i got it 3 years ago since during that time i have also had many more strategies trading locally on even my TV stick with no performance issues since most strategies so far have been the easiest to find is with Limit and stop orders which are placed to the broker days before they normally execute so You can even be offline for a day with no impact.

Hi, I recommend refurbished workstations of the HP Z series. Z600, Z820, Z 840 with dual-core. 2 x 6 core or more. The number of threads is most important. 12, 16, 24 etc.

I agree with Quantomas on his solution of using servers instead of regular desktops

(dual CPU) servers have several advantages: ECC memory, more stable system (power supply, motherboard) and windows server which is more suitable than windows desktop

the only advantage of a single CPU custom build desktop is performance, you get aprox 30 – 40% more performance with the latest AMD Ryzen or Threadripper but you get other downsides or challenges.

it is an obvious deduction that such a system held 24 hours a day continuously, needs electricity and cooling, both having a cost.

I am also interested in such data but so far i have insuficient real data to be more specific.

I already have  2 dual Xeon systems with 80 threads each (V4) and a Ryzen 2950x thats why i recommend the Ryzen for use with SQ, which i have used 24/7 for 3.5 years.

Regarding cooling, from my experience, a room temperature below 25C should be more than enough.

Ideally, should be a (non-heated) room with windows or doors on different sides to allow a natural flow of air.

In the summer, in the worst case, the room should have an air conditioner. Only if the temperature in the room rises above 25C, then the cooling of the system becomes a bit more problematic.

These conditions are for the case in which only the central unit is in the room with long cables for keyboard/monitor that are in another room or with TeamViewer. In most cases, one doesnt need a chair in that room because noone would work on that computer.

Thanks for all your replies guys – much appreciated!  Will be sure to refer back to this as I get set up 🙂

for anyone interested in desktop systems, AMD already has the Ryzen 9 3950X 16 cores and will launch later the 3rd generation Threadripper with a staggering 32 cores on a single processor. The former record was 2990WX from the 2nd generation.

https://www.engadget.com/2019/06/10/amd-16-core-ryzen-3950x/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAACa8Sb0t9BjT1Or7l5ZRs8ZTE4Pbr3f4_ZhyS3rYlRF0MWdKsr0Gk49aBGZ0F_Qt7qoFa1jytVnXQ-CpQ6v5IZnndVd6cY9G5Hm7t2FBhio7uAzcw795C0uHqqc1fKUESF9w15Ehnp3wdvFt5IGZP77j2lQ7GZLLyMjEgl0ntJ3W

https://wccftech.com/amd-ryzen-threadripper-3000-3rd-gen-zen-2-32-core-64-thread-cpu-spotted/

the main difference in the Ryzen and Threadripper is the socket, AM4 much cheaper for Ryzen and TR4 with much more expensive motherboards for threadripper

the truth is …..you have 16 cores and you want 32 … you have 32 cores and you want 64 … and so on … the cores are never enough …. for example I would like hundreds  cores,,,:)

even my i9 9th generation feels slow to me now….

The 8 core Intel 9900K with its 20.000 points in general benchmark is very decent given a realistic “home” budget. Few and much more expensive processors are better.

For those with much older/slower systems, i would recommend an 8 core  Ryzen 7 3800X from the latest 3rd gen with 24.500 points and a 400 euro price

or…for those with a little more budget, the 12 core Ryzen 9 3900X with 31.800 points and an aproximate 570 euro price

the AM4 motherboards are cheap

if the heat generated is a problem, there is another approach to resolve this

there are motherboards with wifi onboard and there are also HDMI dummy plugs. This way, one can assemble a desktop and put it anywhere outside home only with the power cable attached to the chassis. No, ethernet cable, no monitor, no keyboard or mouse. It can be accessed remotely and once the final batch of strategies are generated, those can be transferred to a laptop for final selection.