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| For those of you who have asked how I run QCharts stretching over 8
monitors, I have put together this page. This is a (roughly) composited photo of
my tradestation.
Also, this is a long page, you'll need to scroll
down.
Contact Me: If you have questions about setting up a multiple monitor computer, click here to ask them. I will get your question and respond privately via email. Also, you can see my QCharts help page for more tips on running QCharts successfully by clicking here. By the way, for those of you that have asked, I just named this computer "the tradestation". It does NOT run TradeStation software, nor do I have an account with TradeStation Securities. The Tradestation:
Hopefully you get the idea of how I've supported
the monitors and how QCharts flows over all 8 monitors. Maybe this will provide
a spark for your own multi-monitor setup. (You can tell I like plywood and 2 x
4's.) The computer that powers
the 8 monitors has only one function: to run QCharts. The actual tower
(computer) is located under the plywood table, in between the two filing
cabinets. Motherboard: Tyan Tiger 133 - Dual processor (Slot 1 processors) RAM: 512mb SDRAM - PC 133MHz Processors: (2) Intel PIII - 1.0GHz Slot 1 Intel processors - 100 MHz Front Side Bus Hard Disk: (2) IBM 7200RPM, EIDE 20gb drives CD ROM: 50x CD ROM drive, Sony CD-RW drive Video Cards: (2) Matrox G-200 MMS 32mb PCI Quad Cards. Each card powers 4 monitors. Each monitor is running at 1152 x 864 pixel resolution and at 16 bit color settings. Monitors: (8) DELL 21" P1110 monitors. These are flat screen (CRT) monitors, with Trinitron tubes. Heavy (about 60 pounds each) and they put off heat! Network Adapter: Kingston KNE111TX (a standard 100bT card) Operating System: Windows 2000 Professional, Service Pack 4
QCharts:
5.1.0.14 (with "Option 21" turned on) and QFAI v3 Most of the hardware components (except the monitors) were sourced off of eBay, or leftovers from a business I used to own. With QCharts, I run the application and stretch its workspace over all 8 monitors. Then, I place inside that workspace what charts, T&S sheets, quote sheets, etc that I need. Then I save that as a workspace. When I close the application and later re-launch it, it remembers that I had it stretched over 8 monitors and returns to that configuration. NOTE: I do NOT "maximize" the workspace window. I leave it so I can resize it. I have found that if I click the button to maximize the workspace (upper RH corner, middle button, next to the X (close) button) that it will maximize the workspace onto monitor #1 (and ONLY monitor #1). So you have to leave it "un-maximized" and size the workspace manually to cover all the monitors. Also, covering this many monitors, you'll get used to rolling the mouse a lot.
I realize I am
asking a lot of QCharts and my CPUs by asking it to keep up with all of
this data, but I don't really see the yellow or orange lights in the status
bar that signal network or CPU issues very often. They do happen
infrequently, and when they do, I switch to another server and the problems
quickly go away. Memory usage with QCharts running is typically less than half.
That is, about 200mb of RAM (of 512mb total) show occupied. I've never run
out of RAM on this system.
The increased processor power (moving up to twin PIII's at 1.0GHz each) helps the data flow considerably. Typical per processor CPU usage measures at around 3% to 10% during the market day, with occasional spikes to 50% (like when I pull an option montage). QCharts is the ONLY application that I run on this computer. I have a 2nd computer in my office (2nd pic, further below), with a dual AGP card and an additional single PCI video card powering (3) 17" monitors, that I run my brokerage pages, email, web browsers and the like on. The 8 monitor tradestation is ONLY for QCharts. And this is the specific type of video card that I have used. I've got 2 of these in the Tradestation. You can put up to 4 of these in one computer and power 16 monitors if you wanted to. This is the G200 MMS (32mb) Matrox Quad card. Click here to open a PDF of the user manual for this card. For those of you out there who are trying to do this, BE SURE you get both of the cables WITH your video card (if you buy it off of eBay). Just the card alone doesn't do much good for powering 4 monitors. You gotta have the cables.....I have seen some auctions on eBay with the card only. If you didn't know any better, you'd think you were buying what you need, when in reality, you'd still need to go out and buy the cables. Better to get it all the first time around. If you find a card / cable set like this on eBay, it will probably run anywhere from $100 to $200 depending on auction specifics. (Always check your seller and their feedback.)
The Workstation... This is a shot of my other workstation. This is the computer I run email, browsers, and everything else I do. You can see the beginning of the tradestation's monitors on the left hand side of this picture. The Workstation (configuration below this picture):
Motherboard: Tyan Tiger 133 - Dual processor (Slot 1 processors) RAM: 768mb SDRAM - PC 133MHz Processors: (2) Intel PIII - 600MHz Slot 1 (EB) Intel processors - 133 MHz Front Side Bus Hard Disk: (2) Seagate 7200RPM, EIDE 120gb drives Other drives: 56x CD ROM drive, LG DVD-RW drive Video Card: Matrox G-450 32mb Dual Video Card and Matrox Millenium 4mb Single PCI card Monitors: (2) Samsung SyncMaster 763MB monitors and (1) CTX VL700 17" monitor Network Adapter: Kingston KNE111TX (a standard 100bT card) Operating System: Windows XP Professional, Service Pack 2 |
