-2

I'm using HP DL360p Gen8 for low latency trading (but not ultra-low-latency!). It means that i'm working in frame about "10+ microseconds" and i don't care about "1-5 microsecond" or nanoseconds.

I have dual Xeon E5-2640 and HP Ethernet 1Gb 4-port 331FLR Adapter. I colocate on stock exchange and connected using 100 MBit Ethernet cable.

I'm thinking what can be reasonable to upgrade and if it makes sense to upgrade this server or I should buy a new one once Xeon E5-2600 v2 is released. So I have following questions:

  • will it be possible to install Xeon E5-2600 v2 in this server? I'm thinking to replace two 2640 6 cores each with one top Xeon E5-2600 v2, 10 cores. I think one processor will be enough for me and I will avoid QPI link latency, DDIO will perform optionally etc. etc.

  • how much microseconds can I win replacing "HP Ethernet 1Gb 4-port 331FLR Adapter" with something else? I guess I should buy DDIO-compatible card, but what would be a good choice? Does it make sense to buy this expensive card (it seems it doesn't support DDIO btw)?

I'm under Windows yet but will migrate to Linux soon.

I'm not sure but probably my question is too localized and should not be asked on this site so. What would be a good place for such "localized" questions then?

ewwhite
  • 197,159
  • 92
  • 443
  • 809
Oleg Vazhnev
  • 549
  • 4
  • 13
  • 27
  • 1
    You could probably ask your HP dealer or HP themselves. Presumably you have read the HP low latency guide http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01804533/c01804533.pdf – ramruma May 20 '13 at 09:17
  • i want to update status of my project. I completely moved to C++ from C# and now have dual-boot system Windows Server 2008 R2 / RHEL 7. Still Windows in production, but i'm testing Linux. I installed "Solarflare SFN7122F" network card and it seems now networking is much better. Once moved To Linux I can also use OpenOnload. Then I will probably replace my server to HP DL360p Gen9 (i can keep using old HDD's and network card). After these steps I must be using one of the fastest server/network card/OS so I hope to be competitive – Oleg Vazhnev Nov 01 '14 at 08:17

1 Answers1

4

You've asked these. questions. before.
I've answered them with specific knowledge of the industry and very specific hardware recommendations.

I wouldn't upgrade anything at this point because you should be looking at your application and optimizing as much as possible there.

In general, moving from Windows to Linux is going to help you far more than any hardware tweak or system upgrade. Yet, I still manage client trading systems that run on Windows 2008... so it can definitely be done. Obviously, people are trading today on HP ProLiant G7 and the current Gen8 platforms.

As for resources, join a few LinkedIn trading groups. Network with other people in the industry. Do your own research! Having been in several HFT firms, the things that worked well for one didn't necessarily work for others. Much of this depends on YOU.

Community
  • 1
ewwhite
  • 197,159
  • 92
  • 443
  • 809
  • thank you for your response. probably it makes sense to replace network card with DDIO one? it should work under any operating system, relatively cheap and easy... – Oleg Vazhnev May 20 '13 at 13:17
  • i've found that my HP DL360p Gen8 is 20 microseconds slower than HP DL160 Gen8 (which is cheaper!). I think this is because network card. HP DL160 has cheaper, but faster Intel-based DDIO-compatible network card. As 20+ microseconds are important for me even under Windows i think i'm going to upgrade network card. – Oleg Vazhnev Aug 19 '13 at 14:15