We’ve compiled a list of the top 10 most important things to consider when purchasing a new trading computer. Trading computer technology has witnessed remarkable advancements over the last two decades. We encourage you to buy from a company that not only offers the newest processors and platforms, but also has evolved the design of their computers.
Our computers offer unparalleled performance that surpasses everything else out there, establishing us as the ultimate destination for traders seeking top-tier computers designed for multi-monitor usage. With nearly two decades of industry expertise, we have earned a stellar reputation among traders for providing the best trading computers you can buy.
Unlike other prominent manufacturers, we refrain from pre-installing bloatware or junk trial software. Our installations solely comprise the operating system and essential Windows updates, guaranteeing a seamless computing experience right out of the box. Every detail of our computers is skillfully engineered to function flawlessly and surpass your expectations.
The companies you are talking to shouldn’t just be experts in day trading, they also need to be experts in designing & building custom desktop computers. An analogy would be a luxury car enthusiast that loves collecting high end cars but might not know the first thing about changing the oil on a car or replacing a set of brake pads. When entrusting a company to build your high-end system, it is essential that they possess not only a passion for trading but also expertise in the technology they are offering. The company you work with should have intimate knowledge of all aspects of modern PC building.
The computer should be engineered with proper airflow and fan setup, so you avoid overheating and dust accumulation inside the case. Trading computers have multiple case fans installed, some are for air exhaust and others for air intake. When the combined airflow of the intake fans surpasses that of the exhaust fans, it results in the creation of positive pressure within the chassis – this is what you want! Negative air pressure is when there are either more total exhaust fans then intake fans, or the combined airflow (cfm) of all the exhaust fans is greater than the intake. You do not want negative air pressure in your trading computer. Your system integrator should be aware of what this is, and they should be designing their computers to prevent negative air pressure because it accumulates too much dust.
The company you are buying from should be able to explain to you precisely how they setup the BIOS of the computer. As a customer, you don’t need to understand the complex inner workings of your computer and BIOS, but you should be confident your system integrator is able to set things up properly. Many companies completely ignore the BIOS or configure it incorrectly. The BIOS should be updated with the newest, most stable version that exists.
The CPU should have a really good cooling solution. Trading computers are, much of the time, pushing the processor very hard. This generates heat and the CPU cooler must deal with that heat. Often, we see companies advertising “liquid cooling” without any reference as to what product they are actually installing. We believe you should, at a minimum, have a really good Noctua brand air cooler in your trading computer. Or, if you want liquid cooling, the system should have a 240mm, 280mm, or 360mm AIO liquid cooler.
Many companies list “liquid cooling” in their product description, and then put the cheapest single fan 120mm AIO liquid cooler they can find. Single fan 120mm AIO liquid coolers do not cool well with modern Intel Core i7 and i9 processors. You can get away with using them on Core i3 and Core i5 processors only, unless you want your processor to run hot.
You should be purchasing a computer from a company that specializes in custom built multiple monitor computers, not the big box retail stores.
We understand that, in the past, you may have purchased a name brand system from some of the big mainstream companies. You might have even had a decent experience. It would be disingenuous of us to just make a blanket statement that all store bought computers are bad, because they are not.
But the difference is pretty stark when you start delving into the details and we point out the differences. Store bought computers, in our experience, have lower quality parts to get the price down as low as possible. Also, the cooling solutions on many mass produced computers are less than adequate.
The biggest difference we notice is the motherboards. It seems like some of the stuff on the store shelves come with low cost, cheap motherboards. Additionally, both Intel and AMD make multiple chipsets for the same series of processors so that motherboard manufacturers can produce boards at different price points with more or less features. More often than not, store bought computers will go with the cheaper chipsets and boards.
At Blue Aura Computers, we only used the best chipsets from Intel and AMD in our trading computers. This ensures superior performance, increased speed, and enhanced upgrade capabilities. There is also a huge amount of motherboard features that are missing from the cheaper boards and chipsets.
The video card (GPU for short) is the piece of hardware that drives all of your screens and displays the critical charts and programs you need for trading.
Which type of video card is best for trading? In the past, we have favored NVIDIA Quadro cards and have utilized various Quadro models. Quadro used to be the brand that NVIDIA used on their professional cards, used primarily for business purposes. However, NVIDIA has transitioned away from the Quadro branding for their latest products and now refers to them as RTX instead.
There are a lot of multi-display RTX card models. Harnessing the cutting-edge display technologies and interfaces, NVIDIA RTX professional products offer unparalleled visuals. They have really low power consumption compared to most NVIDIA gaming cards. NVIDIA professional multi-monitor cards are easy to use to control single or multiple displays on a desktop computer. FYI – new RTX business cards will have all DisplayPort’s on the card, so make sure your monitors have that input type.
Most gaming cards can work just fine in a trading computer. Gaming cards can be used but are not required for a trading computer. But since trading doesn’t involve rendering a 3D object on screen it’s better to use a multiple monitor professional card like an NVIDIA RTX model.
Unless you are going to play games on your computer when you aren’t trading, it’s best to stay away from the really expensive high end gaming cards. They tend to run hot, consume a lot of power and they are very expensive! We’ve also found that high end gaming cards have an unpredictable lifespan.
There can be scenarios where some low cost or mid-range gaming cards make sense to use. We’ve used certain models over the years when customers want DVI ports. But the future is moving towards DisplayPort and newer versions of HDMI so it’s best stick with the professional RTX cards.
We understand the importance of staying within budget. However, if you currently have 4 monitors and anticipate expanding to 6 or 8 screens in the future, it would be wise to consider configuring your system with a second graphics card now. By doing so, your monitor array can evolve and expand gradually as your budget allows, ensuring compatibility and flexibility for future monitor expansion.
If you have a really tight budget and cannot afford a second card, it is essential to make sure that the trading computer is equipped with a minimum of two PCIe x16 video card slots. By doing so, you will have the flexibility to upgrade the computer in the future and accommodate additional video cards when you can afford it.
Blue Aura Trading Computers are built with expansion and upgradeability in mind. That’s why we insist on using power supplies no smaller than 600 watts going forward. Most of our computers have a 650 watt or an 850 watt selected as the base configuration. We use only the best motherboards such as ASUS Prime and ProArt models that will give you all the best features and performance that your processor and chipset provide.
When possible, you should always be using a wired connection, straight from your router to the LAN port on your trading computer.
Ethernet is faster than Wi-Fi with the only downside being you need to run an ethernet cable to your computer. Wi-Fi is technically slower in most cases, but, given that the maximum speed of everyone’s internet connection varies, the Wi-Fi connection at your home might be on par with a wired connection.
Wi-Fi connections are more susceptible to interference, making it more risky to trust with your internet connection. We suspect many people already trade over Wi-Fi, and depending on the type of trading that you do Wi-Fi might be working perfectly fine. But, given the choice between both, you always should opt for a wired connection.
How much faster your connection is with a wired connection relies on the hardware you are using. One of the best things you can do is upgrade to one of the newest wireless routers if your equipment is older.
Wired ethernet connections have less latency and you’ll be able to not only trade with less worry, but you’ll be able to upload, download and transfer files faster between devices.
As one grows older, it is a common experience to feel a certain reluctance or resistance towards acquiring new knowledge or skills. We’ve all been there, and no one is immune. But if you are serious about trading and are genuinely committed to it, investing the effort to learn all the newest Windows features will help you become much more productive.
There are two really great features in Windows 11 to learn, and these should remain in future versions of Windows. These are simple productivity features that can help you use Windows more effectively.
Snap layouts helps you organize your open app windows into convenient zones. This features is baked right into Windows, so no software installation is required. Just hover your mouse over an app window’s maximize button and the grid layouts will appear. We wrote a great article on snap layouts, be sure to give it a read.
Virtual desktops is another amazing tool. This one is just as simple as snap layouts. Think of it like having different user accounts, but instead of actually having to log in to separate accounts to access different desktops you can have multiple desktops within the same account.
These accounts are not running programs separate from each other. Any changes you make to a document in one desktop will be reflected in other ones because they are all accessing the same files and running programs. It’s really just a convenient way of organizing different activities. You could have one desktop for trading, one for personal, one for gaming and entertainment. Check out our in depth article on virtual desktops to learn even more.
Don’t buy a trading computer with a small amount of RAM! This is one area where you absolutely shouldn’t cut corners. How much is considered small? We think 16GB is the absolute minimum, but really that isn’t even enough for most traders. We recommend 32GB or 64GB right now, and even 128GB if its within your budget.
Also, make sure your trading computer has DDR5 RAM. DDR5 is the newest RAM, it is a huge jump in performance over DDR4. 128GB might be a little overkill, but with DDR5 we’ll soon see 64GB capacities per stick so an affordable 128GB kit of RAM is definitely going to be here someday.
Few things are as frustrating as enduring the relentless and irritating noise of whirring fans throughout the day, echoing within the confines of the computer chassis. However, these issues become obsolete when the computer is properly engineered by a skilled system integrator. At Blue Aura Computers, we are committed to engineering the quietest trading computers possible.
Many of our cases from Fractal Design have sound dampening materials. They have sound dampening on both sides of the case panels and also on the top panel. Even the front has sound dampening, so you are protected from noise on 4 sides of the computer.
We do change the case models we use often, but for over 10 years we’ve been almost exclusively using Fractal Design cases and plan to always keep them in our lineup for the foreseeable future. At the time this article was published we are using a Fractal Design Define 7 model with full sound dampening and also a smaller compact version of that case that has the same sound dampening.
With some of the cases that don’t have sound dampening, we make sure the case fans are set to produce a minimal amount of noise.
It can be incredibly frustrating to have unwanted software occupying space on your computer without your consent. Everyone can relate to this. You’ve just bought a mass produced computer from your favorite big box retailer. Maybe it was a laptop, maybe it was a desktop, either way when the computer is booted you are greeted with a bunch of junk software that was pre-installed for you.
Many Windows computers sold tend to boot up a little sluggish, so much so that you can’t experience the true performance potential. This unwanted software is commonly referred to as bloatware or junkware. While most bloatware isn’t inherently harmful, it can impede system performance take up a big chunk of your hard drive.
The custom trading computers we sell at Blue Aura come 100% clean and ready to perform at their highest potential. We use the latest Windows media downloaded directly from Microsoft, so we are always installing the newest clean version of their release.
Protect yourself from those pesky power surges and interruptions by using a UPS battery backup. A UPS, short for Uninterrupted Power Supply, is like having a large battery ready to go to power all of your equipment when needed.
Now, a UPS battery will only last so long and give you just enough time to close out your trades and power down safely. Depending on what’s plugged into the UPS, you could get anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes. If you can’t afford a UPS (they are usually less than $200) you need to at least be using a basic power strip with surge protection.
We hope that the information in this article will assist you in making a more informed decision while shopping for a new trading computer. If you are interested in purchasing a high performance computer from a company that will exceed all your expectations, give us a call at 920-344-5642.
If you are finished reading and want to head over and look at our systems, check out the “Products” menu above. You’ll find a full listing of all our product pages including our powerful Intel Trading Computers and AMD Trading Computers.