Is My Computer Slow?

[shooly76 10]

I use NT7...5,10, and 3 min charts...I have an ASUS laptop w an intel dual core processor 2.20 ghz processor and 3 gigs of RAM

 

whenever I am in a trade I use a bar timer, and after the timer hits zero, it always takes like 10-60 seconds for the timer to start counting down again. is this lag due to my slow laptop?

 

I am looking at laptop w an i5 processor w 4 gigs of DDR3 RAM...will I still have this lag problem w new, faster machine?

[TheNegotiator 13]

Quite probably yes, your computer is slow. Is it a trading only pc? If not then windows and its wonderful registry will conspire to kill performance. Also, is it connected wirelessly? If so, connect it via an ethernet cable to your modem/router. Period.

 

Personally, I don't like laptops for trading at all. They are imo overpriced and underspeced. They are difficult to upgrade too other than memory/hdd(although many have limitations in the bios as to what you can do here- For example, I have an old laptop which won't recognise 4gb of memory it has in it. Dell imposed a 3gb limit. I'm sure there is a bios hack out there which could fix this, but should it really be this hard?). Anyway, each to their own as they say!

[johnw 10]

I use NT7...5,10, and 3 min charts...I have an ASUS laptop w an intel dual core processor 2.20 ghz processor and 3 gigs of RAM

 

whenever I am in a trade I use a bar timer, and after the timer hits zero, it always takes like 10-60 seconds for the timer to start counting down again. is this lag due to my slow laptop?

 

I am looking at laptop w an i5 processor w 4 gigs of DDR3 RAM...will I still have this lag problem w new, faster machine?

 

I have a WiFi 'trade only' Lenovo i5 highly speced coupled to a Toshiba mobile monitor

 

The bar counter rolls seamlessly and the Lenovo [4 months old] easily keeps pace with my 'trade only' PC [quite highly speced]

 

Lenovo does not require extra cooling and after 4 months trial, I am selling the PC.

 

My entire Home and Office now runs on Lenovos.

 

good luck

[TheNegotiator 13]

John, how old is your trade only PC? Also, just being trade only isn't enough. It has to be a clean OS install with no extra crap running at all.

 

The wireless issue for me is clear. Don't use it if you care about price(trading). Any little fluctuation can screw you up and even with the latest wirless cards this can happen. It does of course depend on where you are in relation to the router. If you are sitting right next to it in your office, then it's much less likely to be an issue. But then if this is the case, why not just plug a cable in anyway? The other point is what is the traffic like on your network? The wireless data goes through your router, whereas hard wired connections are connected to a switch(within the same router). Generally I have found switches to be much quicker.

 

Lenovo is a good brand. It used to be IBM's consumer PC business. It's also an expensive brand. No matter what though. Give it a few years and it'll start to struggle. It depends on how you work though. If you are happy with a wireless laptop, there are certainly good solutions out there.

[johnw 10]

John, how old is your trade only PC? Also, just being trade only isn't enough. It has to be a clean OS install with no extra crap running at all.

 

The wireless issue for me is clear. Don't use it if you care about price(trading). Any little fluctuation can screw you up and even with the latest wirless cards this can happen. It does of course depend on where you are in relation to the router. If you are sitting right next to it in your office, then it's much less likely to be an issue. But then if this is the case, why not just plug a cable in anyway? The other point is what is the traffic like on your network? The wireless data goes through your router, whereas hard wired connections are connected to a switch. Generally I have found switches to be much quicker.

 

Lenovo is a good brand. It used to be IBM's consumer PC business. It's also an expensive brand. No matter what though. Give it a few years and it'll start to struggle. It depends on how you work though. If you are happy with a wireless laptop, there are certainly good solutions out there.

 

 

PC is 12 months and a virgin ... I roll my gear every 12 months ... so in 8 months time

my trading Lenovo downgrades into general work.

[TheNegotiator 13]

Being 12 months ago that you bought it, I am guessing it could well not be an i series intel cpu. There's also a chance it's vista. If you want to make the comparison between the Lenovo laptop and the PC, you need to disclose the PC's specs.

[johnw 10]

Being 12 months ago that you bought it, I am guessing it could well not be an i series intel cpu. There's also a chance it's vista. If you want to make the comparison between the Lenovo laptop and the PC, you need to disclose the PC's specs.

 

as i wrote ....

Lenovo i5 is 4 months and I roll my gear every 12 months ...so PC was 12 months, 4 months ago.... so it was a well speced machine 16 months ago

[johnw 10]

Being 12 months ago that you bought it, I am guessing it could well not be an i series intel cpu. There's also a chance it's vista. If you want to make the comparison between the Lenovo laptop and the PC, you need to disclose the PC's specs.

 

as i wrote ....

Lenovo i5 is 4 months and I roll my gear every 12 months ...so PC was 12 months old, 4 months ago.... so it was a well speced machine 16 months ago ... I run Windows 7 now and am looking into Linux

[TheNegotiator 13]

Yeah okay, but what are the specifications of the older PC?

[johnw 10]

Yeah okay, but what are the specifications of the older PC?

 

I can't recall, the machine is disconnected awaiting pickup.

I do recall that I had the ram upgraded about 6 months into it's life as the techo improved

[TheNegotiator 13]

Fair enough. But trying to make a proper comparison without actually knowing the old PC's specs is not going to work I'm afraid. Significant performance improvements have been made in the latest generation of Intel cpus, so if it's an older core 2 processor for example, with an older chipset, slower memory and a slower HDD(your new one may have a latest gen SSD although that is somewhat doubtful) to mention some key components, I'm not surprised that the new laptop keeps up. I don't think you confirmed which OS the old PC ran either. XP is fine as is Win7 imo, but if it was Vista then I'd have serious concerns for its performance.

 

Buying a new PC(desktop or laptop) is a minefield of misinformation and lack of knowledge. I have found this to be greater in the retail laptop space. Many people who work with computers day-to-day in IT don't even have a clue.

 

A little test, albeit a simple one, is to search for your cpu model on passmark.

 

passmark

 

If you don't know the model of your cpu, easiest is probably to download cpu-z which has a load of other information on your system too.

 

cpu-z

 

One quick note about cpu-z before anyone asks. Your cpu frequency is likely to fluctuate in cpu-z. This is not because cpu-z is inaccurate or your system/cpu is faulty. It's because of a power management feature from Intel called EIST(if you have an AMD chip I think it's call PowerNow!). Enhanced Intel Speedstep Technology is what it stands for and it basically is throttling down frequency when cpu load is low.

Edited November 9, 2011 by TheNegotiator

[johnw 10]

Fair enough. But trying to make a proper comparison without actually knowing the old PC's specs is not going to work I'm afraid. Significant performance improvements have been made in the latest generation of Intel cpus, so if it's an older core 2 processor for example, with an older chipset, slower memory and a slower HDD(your new one may have a latest gen SSD although that is somewhat doubtful) to mention some key components, I'm not surprised that the new laptop keeps up. I don't think you confirmed which OS the old PC ran either. XP is fine as is Win7 imo, but if it was Vista then I'd have serious concerns for its performance.

 

Buying a new PC(desktop or laptop) is a minefield of misinformation and lack of knowledge. I have found this to be greater in the retail laptop space. Many people who work with computers day-to-day in IT don't even have a clue.

 

A little test, albeit a simple one, is to search for your cpu model on passmark.

 

passmark

 

If you don't know the model of your cpu, easiest is probably to download cpu-z which has a load of other information on your system too.

 

cpu-z

 

One quick note about cpu-z before anyone asks. Your cpu frequency is likely to fluctuate in cpu-z. This is not because cpu-z is inaccurate or your system/cpu is faulty. It's because of a power management feature from Intel called EIST(if you have an AMD chip I think it's call PowerNow!). Enhanced Intel Speedstep Technology is what it stands for and it basically is throttling down frequency when cpu load is low.

 

Many thanks for the Links.

 

I went from XP to 7 and skipped Vista on the way through .... I have a tech guru who looks after me so I am not that knowledgeable on fine detailed specs myself, I am afraid.

 

I figure that if I do my job well and he does his job well, things will work out OK

[SpideySense 10]

It seems to me that the real issue is that the OP quoted 10-60 seconds delay.

 

That's not a computer hardware slowness issue; that's something wrong with your setup, probably the software. No hardware slowness is going to result in more than fractions of a second unless something else is going very wrong.

[v101 10]

did you try your software on another computer? Does it have the same behavior? I highly suggest for a trading computer to NOT be connected to the Internet via WIFI, use a direct CAT-5 cable connected up to your router or switch.

 

If you can afford a SSD drive, they are much faster so your apps will load faster, but they aren't that much difference once the app is loaded.

 

Also I dont load any other apps that are needed to operate my charts, and trading app, no "new apps" get loaded on my trading computer.

 

Another tip, is to disable the windows automatic updates. Imagine if your in a trade, then windows forces you to upgrade to to newly installed apps... :missy::missy:

 

Just a few tips, more than likely most already knew these, but good reminders.

[TheNegotiator 13]

It could be a combination of both things. Running the latest software on old hardware can be a issue sometimes. My guess is that it's not a clean trading only PC, wireless isn't great, hardware is a little older. A possible suggestion which may or may not help is to run a maintenance utility to check for issues. I don't think any are perfect but here's a free one:-

 

glary utilities

[TheNegotiator 13]

Many thanks for the Links.

 

I went from XP to 7 and skipped Vista on the way through .... I have a tech guru who looks after me so I am not that knowledgeable on fine detailed specs myself, I am afraid.

 

I figure that if I do my job well and he does his job well, things will work out OK

 

Absolutely. I personally have always been tech orientated and prefer to understand these things for myself at least to a decent extent. I find far too many so called experts know jack and I end up making them look silly even with a small amount of knowledge.

 

(Much like many so called trading experts)

 

On the SSD comment, I would say that for the OS you could run a new SSD but an older model may not have any performance benefits over a good mechanical drive although the access times are lower and they don't make a noise! Mechanical drives are a bit pricey at the mo tho due to the Thai floods.

[johnw 10]

What do you guys see as a problem in connecting via WiFi ... apart from security issues

 

I was dead against WiFi for a long time, but I travel alot and so far I have had no problems, but that is not to say that this will continue in the future

[TheNegotiator 13]

For me it's mainly experience. But things that can effect your wireless connection are distance and what types of physical materials are in between you and the router, other air wave based communication data, the router itself and its traffic(lots of data at anytime means the 'clever' router will have to put more stress on its internal processor- many routers don't have very good internal processors). The other things you have to watch out for with wireless is things like power management. Laptops are set up (to some extent) to get good battery life. Wireless uses battery life. So it may turn the transmit/receive power down in an effort to save power. You may be able to specify a setting in the power management profiles of win7 for when it is plugged into the charger.

[johnw 10]

For me it's mainly experience. But things that can effect your wireless connection are distance and what types of physical materials are in between you and the router, other air wave based communication data, the router itself and its traffic(lots of data at anytime means the 'clever' router will have to put more stress on its internal processor- many routers don't have very good internal processors). The other things you have to watch out for with wireless is things like power management. Laptops are set up (to some extent) to get good battery life. Wireless uses battery life. So it may turn the transmit/receive power down in an effort to save power. You may be able to specify a setting in the power management profiles of win7 for when it is plugged into the charger.

 

Good point about battery management, I have switched off 'battery stretch' and run in 'high performance mode'

The Router has been changed and my Guru suggests I do what he does and take my Router with me on my travels.

[v101 10]

Having a PC connected to a WIFI network for trading like others said isn;t the greatest ideas, I am not saying that you can't do it, if you have your WIFI network designed properly, but so many factors can cause problems with it...so as a rule for my trading computers, I run them strictly direct via cat-5 into my switches. my lastest pc has 2 nics on the back of the computer.so in the future can lag them together, or else connect them into 2 different switches...

 

Also regarding your PC check your hardware and determine if you have SATA-2 or SATA-3. from my testing having a SSD run on SATA-2 isn;t much different that running a spin drive at say 7200 RPM... If you have sata-3 support on your MOBO, then get a SSD that supports sata-3 and you will be a happy person for improving your boot time and your app load time...

[Tams 20]

I use NT7...5,10, and 3 min charts...I have an ASUS laptop w an intel dual core processor 2.20 ghz processor and 3 gigs of RAM

 

whenever I am in a trade I use a bar timer, and after the timer hits zero, it always takes like 10-60 seconds for the timer to start counting down again. is this lag due to my slow laptop?

 

I am looking at laptop w an i5 processor w 4 gigs of DDR3 RAM...will I still have this lag problem w new, faster machine?

 

most of the charting software are event-driven programs.

 

ie it will make an update if there is a new tick coming in,

otherwise the program will just sit there in idle.

 

you can have the fastest computer in the world,

but if there is no new tick coming in,

the computer would just sit there.

[TheNegotiator 13]

so what about the rest of the operating system (may be other stuff running for example which uses .net) and simply the gazillion different indicators some people use? Slow PC = slow responsiveness.

[SpideySense 10]

I use NT7...5,10, and 3 min charts...I have an ASUS laptop w an intel dual core processor 2.20 ghz processor and 3 gigs of RAM

 

whenever I am in a trade I use a bar timer, and after the timer hits zero, it always takes like 10-60 seconds for the timer to start counting down again. is this lag due to my slow laptop?

 

I am looking at laptop w an i5 processor w 4 gigs of DDR3 RAM...will I still have this lag problem w new, faster machine?

 

 

There is a discussion going on about:

ssds - good, and even on sata2 reduce access times (rather than bulk file transfer)

wifi - to be avoided

ram and cpu - as fast as possible while staying off the bleeding/expensive edge

 

 

But nothing being said would account for 10-60 second delays. I suspect that shooly has his system screwed up in some way completely unrelated to hardware speeds. Perhaps reinstalling at least the trading software but preferably the whole OS would be a good idea.

 

Note that I use Sierra Chart (which I abandoned NT for many versions ago) so I don't know how the timer works ... is Tams right in that if the OP isn't getting any ticks for 60 seconds the timer will sit and do nothing (poor timer design)?

[TheNegotiator 13]

is Tams right in that if the OP isn't getting any ticks for 60 seconds the timer will sit and do nothing (poor timer design)?

 

I don't think that's what was being said as such. A bar timer is going to be based on time elapsed and not new data coming in. So I don't think it would be idle if new data was coming in in this case.

 

I suspect there is a bottleneck in his system and probably one where the software is either screwed up, corrupted or even infected. Although I think it's going to be about the OS. As much as it annoys the hell out of anyone, I would strongly suggest to do a clean install and OS tweak then re-installing NT7. If you have lots of stuff on your drive which you don't want to lose, get another small drive to do the install on. If you don't know how to do it, ask and one of us will find a guide for you(although it's not exactly complicated either).

[Tams 20]

I don't think that's what was being said as such. A bar timer is going to be based on time elapsed and not new data coming in. So I don't think it would be idle if new data was coming in in this case.

 

I suspect there is a bottleneck in his system and probably one where the software is either screwed up, corrupted or even infected. Although I think it's going to be about the OS. As much as it annoys the hell out of anyone, I would strongly suggest to do a clean install and OS tweak then re-installing NT7. If you have lots of stuff on your drive which you don't want to lose, get another small drive to do the install on. If you don't know how to do it, ask and one of us will find a guide for you(although it's not exactly complicated either).

 

if the bar timer is part of the charting program, then it should continue to run in the background.

 

if the bar timer is an indicator, then it will wait for the next tick.