Revised machine spec: "TS-Horse" trading machine will initially
open many TradeStation workspaces/windows … may transition to
Real Tick III … will also open several browser windows.
Source plan one:
(possible future plan two using datamd.com
as bulk source - cheaper).
bulk from esc-tech.com
fill holes aberdeeninc.com
monitors from masterrepair.com armos.com
ESC
In Win Q500 ATX case w/300W PS 120.99
ABIT BH6 108.78
Boxed Intel Pentium II 350 MHz 339.77
Teac floppy drive 24.75
Teac 32x CDROM 54.72
Quantum Fireball EL 7.6GB 194.02
ATI Xpert@Play98 AGP 97.67
MS W98 117.3
Micron 128MB SDRAM PC100 (299.98x2) 599.98
sub total ESC 1657.98
AberdeenINC
ATI Xpert@Play PCI 8mb OEM (93.99x3) 281.97
Spacewalker HOT-255, Ensoniq AudioPCI 35.99
Acer Future Keyb/touchpd-ERGO31/9T 59.99
External USRX V.90 Faxmodem 140.00
ethernet card PCI estimate 60.00
sub total abdn 577.95
MasterRepair/ArmidilloBros
Remanufactured G810 4x500 2000.00
(subject to availability)
TOTAL 4235.93
tax: ??
shipping est cheapest transport $200 total for 3 sources.
Grand total 4436.
Which is more than my pickup truck is worth - but it doesn't
crash during the trading day.
This replaces a machine that seemed exorbitant in '95: a gw2k P5-90
initially 16mb (before memory prices pre-viewed today's Asian/world
crisis) now overdrive P5-180mmx & 64mb. Harddrive is slow, small and
tired, but more than adequate for educational software etc that my
kids will run on it. Currently running TradeStation on P180, with
internet, aux quotes, Excel and *many* browser windows (IE4) on a P5-
180 32mb hooked to an external zoom 56k v90 and linksys hub.
Comments welcome! What did I forget? Cables? Battery? HD
brackets/rails? Or will ESC finesse that stuff?
ECC DIMM? That stuff gets expensive! But I'm gonna populate the
memory slots to enable maxing out m-brd dram w/o having discards. So
its either initially 1 128mb stick or 2.
Any performance penalty for an external modem vs. internal? External
saves a PCI slot - and I think I still used all 5 PCI slots.
Bellatlantic.not (a wordplay on bellatlantic.net) and Adelphia are
showing all the enthusiasm of true monopolists in getting a
technology appropriate to my pursuits onto my street. (Where is the
justice department? Oh, raising software costs for us all? Should
have known.) Until then (and probably after) I
am aiming for at least 1 layer of redundancy for quotes, and
execution path: 2 quote sources, 2 trading computers, 2 modems, 2
phone lines, 2 ISPs. Probably ought to extend to 2 brokers with
approximately equal equity distribution. Probably ought to have a
wireless option so when the phone lineman climbs my pole and yanks
both my lines out (happened 2 weeks ago) I have *something* that 1
man in a bucket can't hose.
Any thoughts on the extra 40 bucks to get from the V90 external to
the USB-ready external modem? All that video-ready voice mail stuff
seems like a waste for my purposes. But would going USB eliminate a
bottleneck or am I still constrained by a 16600 uart?
Slots: I used all 5 PCI. 1 AGP, 1 PCI sound card, 3 PCI video cards,
1 PCI ethernet card. Is ISA going away? To free up PCI slots should I
hunt down an ISA sound card or just skip the sound card? An ISA
ethernet card? Or is there a performance benefit from not having any
ISA drivers running? I guess the sound card goes if/when I start
playing with SCSI. I think 1 of the ISA slots overlaps 1 of the PCI,
so only worth going with 1 PCI to ISA switch.
I understand NT is in my future (resistance is futile) but I'm not
biting that bullet right now. Would it be worth selecting a double
CPU M-brd with plans to fill out with a 2nd 350PII when its cheap -
and when I bite the NT bullet? I'm thinking I can pass the BH6/350 to
the P180mmx case/function (for the kids/mom) when I decide to upgrade
this box to NT and go with a new m-brd double CPU setup then (and not
waste the BH6/350). A future 2nd new machine, likely a partial
(initially double CPU mother) clone of this may go directly to NT in
the near but not immediate future. Or a partition on this machine may
be devoted to NT: p1:W98, p2:data, p3:NT. More likely, future second
harddrive will have NT/KOT functions.
I'm not biting on SCSI yet either. I'm still feeling a bit
intimidated by this project without the wrinkles SCSI would add. <gg>
StreetWalker/ Dan S.: Marty @MasterRepair didn't have G810s in stock,
referred me to Alan? @Armidillo who didn't have G810s in the showroom
but is supposed to check warehouse and call. Am I limiting my chances
of getting filled on 4 G810s by making such a narrow choice? Would it
be wiser to accept P815s or P813s or P810s as well? What sense do you
get of MasterRepair/ArmidilloBros's 21" model flow?
StreetWalker: what plug setup on the extra ethernet card do you need
to make Sygate work? If possible I'll get that to temporarily bring
the new machine into my Linksys hub (which uses 10baseT) as well as
to facilitate possible sharing connections via Sygate in the
future. I'll recover a Linksys ethernet PCI card when I cut over to
the new machine. (I do plan to run with simultaneous (but not
shotgunned) V.90 links most but not all of the time - but may have
more than 2 computers hence Sygate.)
Spots: am I creating any blocks to an eventual (maybe sooner - I HATE
pushing reset while the markets are open!) upgrade to NT4 or 5 with
multi-monitors? I tried to select the video cards with NT in mind,
but I am very conscious of NOT being the master of all things NT.
This box is gonna be FULL. Maybe the 400MHz might be a good idea. But
I should also be able to keep my coffee warm - just set it on the
case! Is the Q500 adequately fanned, or should I add extra? Ball-
bearings are preferred, correct? ZP, does this bios give temperature
information that can be monitored by freeware/shareware? Or is that
an additional piece of hardware I should be considering right about
now? Do "backup" fans only come on when some temp threashold is
breached?
Thanks to all thread contributors - I've learned a great deal
(probably enough to really get myself in trouble - definitely enough
to make the thought of buying another Gateway pretty repulsive) from
so many posts including the 2000+ that showed up when I took just a
little time away from the thread. I just wanted to take this
opportunity to express my appreciation without adding a superfluous
post. Of course, you would have had to have read this far, so
superfluous is as superfluous does! Life is like a box of over-heated
silicon. You never know which component will go first... <g>
Regards, Paul |
