[EA Development] PC specs required for development and operations

Hello. This is 2pay.

Regarding the recent surge in storage prices following the memory spike I posted about the other day, I decided to secure a 990 Pro since its price increased by 10% just as I mentioned.

Items that would normally arrive the next day are now scheduled for delivery about two weeks later. Given this level of demand, the 10% price increase is still affordable, so I made a quick decision.

I’m not sure if prices will collapse two years from now, but I think the probability of staying high for the next few months is greater.

(When I checked the day after buying, the stock status showed as out of stock. It’s to the point of not even selling at this level anymore.)

As I’ve said before, to gain benefit (or profit), you need to buy before the price reflects it.

People who enter buys in MT5's GC are those who buy memory after prices have surged. Isn't that irrational?

I think memory will be profitable if resold, but since I can earn enough with EA without arbitrage, I will hold it as inventory for my PC parts.

If anything, I wish we could trade futures for PC parts to lock in the current prices…

A small example of using investment in daily life, if you will.

Another example of something I practice in daily life is when buying a week's worth of groceries, I first check market prices for crops and then stock up. You can find this by looking up agricultural market trends.

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Now, to reiterate, this time I’d like to talk about the PC specs required for development and EA operation.

It’s a topic that’s widely covered, but I’ll write with some experiential insights.

-- What’s required for EA operation --

・Windows 11 environment

・High-speed internet connection

I think these are the minimum requirements for operation.

For those renting a VPS, you’ve probably already achieved these from the start.

MT5 can run on Windows, Mac, Linux, etc., but the EA can run only on Windows.

It’s possible to set up a virtual environment with Linux Proxmox, install Win11, and use it.

Arm version of Win11 also seems to work (e.g., on Surface devices).

However, Arm runs with dual translation, so processing speed is significantly lower than regular Win11 (about 40%).

The best option is a PC with a standard Win11 installed.

The reason it must be 11 is purely security risk.

Since money is at stake, continuing to use an older Windows is risky.

When operating at home, PC specs aren’t a major concern.

If Win11 runs, EA basically runs.

If you have AI training data, you might want not to have too low a spec.

Raspberry Pi 5 or mini PCs work fine.

I recently bought a N97 mini PC, and it runs surprisingly smoothly.

Being able to mount it behind a monitor is quite convenient and takes up almost no space.

These days you don’t need a bulky tower PC to stay up to date with the times.

Regarding connection speed, for day trading to swing trading, you don’t need to worry too much about latency.

Only for scalping is it something you should slightly consider; for arbitrage, really fast connections are required.

More important is ensuring a stable connection with no outages, many times more so.

If you have financial leeway, it’s effective to contract multiple lines to add redundancy (design an environment that never disconnects).

I’m a home operator too, but while monitoring servers I often see data updates halted for seconds to minutes.

Issues can also originate from the broker’s communication failures (some brokers publish outage reports).

If a buy/sell signal occurs during this interval, that could be worst-case.

Of course, use a wired connection. (RJ45)

For home operators, another precaution is to have an UPS (uninterruptible power supply).

It provides emergency power during outages, letting EA continue to operate safely during disasters.

It isn’t like a portable power station that lasts hours, but it will cover short outages and give you time to reorganize positions if recovery isn’t assured.

(During that time you can also switch to a power bank.)

It’s easy to forget, but connect not only the PC itself but also the LAN hub, Wi‑Fi router, and monitor to the UPS. (As a backup, you can log in so you can settle trades even from your smartphone MT5.)

If you operate on a notebook, you don’t need an UPS to prevent shutdowns (watch out for battery wear due to through-pass charging).

-- What’s required for the development environment --

・A high-spec PC

・Multiple monitors

This complements EA operation and requires high specs.

It isn’t impossible with a low-spec PC, but if you try to run 20 years of full Tick tests, you’ll run out of memory and can’t complete tests.

A state of “barely enough” isn’t desirable. During optimization, the CPU, memory, or disk will often hit 100% on Task Manager.

Three years ago, my main validation PC had exactly these specs, and recently it occasionally powers down during optimization without warning.

Specs

Intel Core i7-6700

RAM 24GB

SSD SATA 240GB

HDD 500GB

Win11 Pro (Although six-generation CPUs, HP’s TPM update makes Win11 requirements officially met.)

I’ve used HP business machines since seven years ago, began using them as validation machines five years ago, and their secondary machines failed three years ago.

As a successor to this, the PCs I’m currently using are the following.

Intel Core i5-12400 (2.5GHz/4.4GHz, 6 cores 12 threads)

RAM 64GB

SSD NVMe 1TB

Win11 Pro

Configured for a balance between operation and validation.

I work on production year-round, but timing for resource-intensive tasks like optimization is spotty, so I aim to keep idle power low during normal times.

I don’t use a graphics card because I don’t game()

With MT5, GPU isn’t very important; it’s mainly useful for the Tick generation process.

When people think of graphics cards, they imagine high computational power, but backtesting-type tasks are not their strong suit; CPUs excel there.

Therefore investing in CPU performance (high clocks and many threads) is more efficient for development.

i7-14700k would be nice (3.4GHz/5.6GHz, 20 cores 28 threads). It offers more than double the current task processing power, letting you push storage to twice the speed (brute-force thinking).

I recall MQL references mentioning OpenCL to offload processing to the GPU, but EA operation environments vary greatly between individuals, so I think such GPU offloading is mainly for optimizing within a development environment.

Another notable point is memory.

You can never have too much memory, you know.

Even with 64GB, Task Manager will peg 100%.

The more you have, the more you will consume, so it’s a part you can invest in without hesitation.

You’d want the highest performance motherboard you can fit, but the timing isn’t right now.

If Task Manager shows disk 100% before memory, upgrade to better storage.

I once thought “SSD is SSD, any M.2 is the same.” After upgrading, I realized the vast difference. Even with the same capacity, backtest times halved.

My motherboard only supports Gen4.0, so I’m using Samsung 990 Pro; if Gen5.0 is supported, 9100 Pro would be a good choice.

Other SSD candidates include Kingston KC3000, WD Black SN850X, etc.

For speeding up backtests, 4K IOPS performance and DRAM caching are key metrics that aren’t evident from just raw read/write speeds.

If you want the best of the best, I’d recommend 990 Pro or 9100 Pro. They’re often highlighted even for consoles.

They’re fast, have high write endurance, and have excellent thermal management, so you can run many validations to your satisfaction.

In short, backtests have two major peaks: the Tick generation section, which heavily uses storage, and the test section, which heavily uses memory.

By monitoring Task Manager and identifying bottlenecks, you can choose effective upgrades.

However, as you push for higher performance, the gap between development and user operation grows, so developers should consider this gap as well.

What’s easy for developers isn’t always easy for operators.

Some VPSs run on very old server hardware, so EA and indicators should be designed for low load, and if possible, verify on a lower-spec test rig for best results.

I recently received an old PC (roughly 2nd generation Intel) and plan to try various tests for operation verification.

That’s all for this content.

Thank you for reading.