Initial setup: (picture here) I have a year-old $500 HP/Compaq from Best Buy.  Single AMD proc, single core (a year ago on QCharts 5.x there was no multi-threading so you wanted the fastest processor, not multi-cores).  Since then I’ve added:

• Bumped up to 3GB of RAM
• Added a GeForce 7300 GT PCIe to replace mobo video (dual monitor capable)
• Added a GeForce 6200 PCI (dual monitor capable)
• Plugged in 4 21″ Samsung SyncMaster 204B at 1600×1200.  Turned them portrait to increase the vertical space and allow seeing all 4 in my field of vision (and fit them on the desk).  Also great for web surfing.
• Added 2nd Hard Drive for storing data and pagefile
• Wiped 1st Hard Drive and installed Vista Business x64
• Installed 6.0.2 as my main QCharts (with 5.x still as a backup, mostly for 233 chart historical research and feature comparison)

This setup aught to show you that you don’t have to spend $3-5k for a “stock computer setup”.  Just get multiple video cards (preferably by the same manufacture) and plug them in.  We’ve got a monitoring workstation at work with 5-6 monitors and just keep shoving in the PCI graphic cards.  Vista/XP will do the rest.

Issues with this setup

• Vista is MUCH slower in video refreshes, even with Aero turned off.  Maybe this is NVIDIA’s driver (using 12/2007). It’s laggy, but still useable.
• Not sure if it’s Vista, or the fact I’m running x64, but QCharts crashes on exit.  I run it in XP SP2 compatibility mode
• Running Aero not only slows it down, but crashes the video driver (likely from running two cards, or maybe the portrait mode enabled on all 4)
• Vista doesn’t yet have nView Desktop Manager (due out this spring)
• To using charting during US trading hours (something I don’t normally do) really needs a newer dual core CPU.  With 200 ticker symbols on 6.0.2 I’m 50-100% CPU during day w/o doing anything but “watching”.