3 Desktops for Traders Who Need Speed

It is news to no one that in today's highly volatile, global digital trading markets, he who gets his or her buy or sell order at the NYSE, Direct Edge, BATS, Nasdaq or other virtual financial exchange fastest usually does "bestest."

And just like everything else these days, the high-paying, high-volume traders in these markets work hard to lock us little people out of being first to the digital trading tree. But even these trading whales can't keep powerful trading technologies out of the hands of smaller market members. If you know where to look, there are some serious computer trading tools available to even an average trader. A couple things to remember when it comes to uber-PCs meant for trading: You will be shopping in the so-called desktop luxury gaming PC market, which features computers aimed at alienated young men who play video games; nutty logos and neon lights are the order of the day. And these boxes are not cheap. Prices start well above $2,000. And you should expect to spend about 30% of whatever you initially spend each year on hardware upgrades to stay current. But these power PCs offer major virtues. They require no special expertise to configure. You can buy them easily online. And they're so fast that even with a tiny bit of networking optimization and a couple of decent trading algos, well ... to paraphrase the boxing coach Mickey, of Rocky fame, "You gonna become a very dangerous trading person."Maingear Shift (starting at $2,170)Legend has it that founders Wallace Santos and Jonathan Magalhaes could not decide if they were going to upgrade cars or computers. Personally, I'm glad they went for silicon over steel. Because Kenilworth, N.J.-based Maingear makes one hell of a desktop trading PC for not a hell of a lot of money. For less than $2,200 to start -- or basically what you pay for parts for a box like this -- Maingear solves many of the problems that plague fast computers. By rotating the configuration of the components 90 degrees, they let heat escape easily from the case. And by sticking with solid state hard drives, they give you hundreds of gigabytes of really fast storage. If you are looking for a blistering PC for a good price, start with Maingear. Alienware Area-51 ALX (starting at $3,500)Since it was taken out by Dell back in 2006, this early leader in pure gaming PCs has lost a bit of its mojo. But don't let that fool you: The big A still makes a super-fast PC perfect for traders looking for an edge. If you pay up for it, you can get a six-core i7 processor running at a blistering 4 GHz, or roughly double the capacity of even a fast normal PC. And the 51's uber-quiet liquid cooling technology keeps all this high performance from literally going up in smoke. Finally, traders looking for some support for their PCs could find dealing with Dell reassuring -- although the American Customer Satisfaction Index numbers out Tuesday don't really provide much rationale for that; Dell customer satisfaction ranks toward the bottom, above only the zombie Compaq. Still, for a mid-level, high-performance unit, Alienware is worth a look. Velocity Micro Raptor Signature Edition (Starting $4,674)The buzz on this box is that Velocity founder Randy Copeland builds and sells these Signature Edition Raptors basically for bragging rights. And you know what, he can mouth off all he wants. It's not so much the processing guts of this, which are merely ridiculous Intel Core i7 Extreme Editions. It's how the storage, memory and data bits all work together for ultimate performance. Also, Velocity Micro does a nice job of customizing your box to do what you need. For traders, that means less focus on pristine video capabilities and more on pure processing guts to run your algos. The bottom line is, if you have the coin, you have to have a Velocity Micro. This box is, no overstatement, a Formula One race car of a computer parked right there on your desk. RELATED STORIES: >>3 Ways Gadgets Can Keep You Safe in a Crisis>>Heavy Price for Dell Ruggedized Laptops>>3 Cheap PCs for the Price of One TabletFollow TheStreet.com on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook. >To order reprints of this article, click here: Reprints