New computer.

[higler]

I'm planning on upgrading to a new trading computer as my current one is several years old. It is a 2.4 P4 with 2 GB of memory. I have already tried to optimize NT for speed as suggested in the Help. With NT and fast market conditions my current computer just cannot keep up my CPU often runs at 100%. I really like NT and am willing to get a new computer to help resolve this problem. NT is the only program that I run on my trading computer. I am planning on getting a really fast computer either from TradingComputers.com or building it myself. I have some questions.

Can NT effectively use the the multiple cores of a processor such as the Intel Core 2 Quad. Since NT appears to programmed in C# and uses the .NET framework then I would assume that it is multithreaded and that multiple cores can help. Will the multi core processors help speed up NT?

I am going to use multiple PCI Express video cards to drive multiple monitors.

I am planning on 2 GB of memory but I am certainly willing to add more if it would help. I think that this is probably plenty because when I monitor my current system resources neither my memory nor network is a problem - only my CPU pegged at 100% in moderate to fast conditions.

Will the above changes significantly speed up NT? Do you have any other suggestions for new computer specs to optimize NT?

Thanks.

[NinjaTrader_Ray]

A faster newer PC with more RAM certainly will make a difference. NT is a multi-threaded application. It is not internally programmed to take advantage of multiple-cores, this is left to Windows/.NET to manage.

[higler]

Is Windows XP still the preferred OS to run NT? If so, is there a preference of Professional vs Home? Thanks.

[NinjaTrader_Ray]

We prefer XP, no preference on Home or Pro.

[Alfred]

Attached is a table from the Tradestation forums where the same strategy was run by different users to compare how different CPU's (and memory combos) performed. I assume a roughly similar ranking would be apparent running Ninja....however Ninja is 64 bit and Tradestation is not. The core 2 duos and quad cores look like the way to go....and top of the line would be a xeon chip...

Thanks....

[higler]

Thanks. If NT is 64 bit then is a 64 bit XP Pro operating system beneficial?

[NinjaTrader_Ray]

NT is not optimized for 64 bit processor.

[higler]

Thanks for the clarification.

[Alfred]

My mistake on the 64 bit....thought I had seen on the NT website previously....

Thanks....

[CarlosAlberto]

I ran NT6 on the 64 bit Windows XP. Very fast but quirky (I still have to start NT6 twice first thing in the morning - the first time it freezes, the 2nd time is fine) and still slows down if too many charts and too many indicators, or, like recently, there is an exceptionally high trading volume.

Do not use graphic cards from Nvidia (you get a quirky pointer when using the global setting, and transparent charts -activates the one underneath)

Carlos