bosquedog, my feed is from CanadaStockWatch and some times I have noticed delays in the Market Depth java window. However, this problem seems to be TSE feed related and has been confirmed by the exchange. It's difficult to tell where the delay takes place as there are so many nodes the data travels through before reaching your computer. If you suspect a bottleneck in the data path try using the command "tracert <Domain Name or IP Address>" from the Command Prompt window. If there are entries with timeouts or values that are way out of line from the rest of the delay values then there may be a router problem in the data path.
My dual P3s 1Ghz machine (overclocked to 1.1Ghz using PC133 CAS2 RAM also overclocked) use the stock Intel boxed fan (tests have shown it to be very low noise www6.tomshardware.com ) and is thermostatically controlled. The hotter the chip, the faster the fan turns. From a cold start to full throttle and continues running the fan maintains a fairly constant speed (3835 - 3910RPM) as shown by the ASUS PC Probe graph while the CPUs run at 46 - 48C. If overclocking more, then the fan speed starts to climb and becomes noticeable. My objective was to overclock to just below point where fan speed has to increase for additional cooling. At this overclocked rate there seems to be no difference in the fan speed compared to the stock 1Ghz CPU speed. I've had AMD systems before and found them to run much hotter than the Intel. In fact I've had 1 AMD CPU burnout. AMD CPU heat and its affect on reliability is a well know and documented problem. tomshardware.com Besides the power supply fan, there is an additional fan drawing air into the box from the bottom front. It blows across the MB and PCI cards. The exterior of the box is ambient temperature to the touch, no hot stops. Both fans are low noise type but I don't know the make. Next time I pull the cover I will make a note of it.
The CPUs show no idle time. The command-line version of the SETI@home software is running on each CPU constantly in the background 24 hrs/day. Throughout the trading day there will be 9 - 12+ windows open on each of the 4 21" monitors. Tickers, scanners, charts, MDs, Time/Sales, TS4, email, SI threads, NAV, ZoneAlarm, mIRC channels, ICQ etc. Also, an audio CD is always playing music for my enjoyment. Although the CSW software is not designed specifically for multi-processor machines, W2k will do some CPU load balancing. The point of having a dually is to have reserve power. The probability of having free CPU cycles to do tasks is increased with dual CPUs. You can for example build a daully with only 1 CPU installed. As you require more power install another CPU. Cheaper than buying a complete new system. Companies do this with servers by adding additional CPUs as required to a quad board for example.
The systems run 24/7. Maintenance functions run daily after 2AM such as: NAV full scan, defrag, backup.
Hope this helps you in your quest for dually.
Regards,
Nick |
