Question CPU for thinkorswim

[TheTonMAN]

Hello folks,
I've been looking around for a CPU that will perform for applications like ToS (Thinkorswim)
I'm not a tech savvy person so I've been looking around reddit for some advice. So far this is what I've found to most helpful

For those of you who don’t have a computer background, Java is the language they use to write TOS. Java Swing is the way that the windows are rendered. Swing is a 2D window library and it is single threaded. If you run a debugger on TOS you can see that the CPU spends the most time drawing the boxes around cells so you will see the biggest performance hit with more watchlists and charts up.
This also means that for the best performance you need to be looking for a CPU with the highest single threaded performance. More cores will basically do nothing to speed up TOS. The naïve way to think about this is to find the highest GHz on the potential computer. Fancy graphic cards also do very little since TOS is CPU bound in the Swing Thread and that is not offloaded to the vector processors.

Any recommendations ? Price less than $500 ideally.
Thank you for time!

Edit: I might also use the same machine for gaming seldomly. Star Wars BF2 mainly....

 

[Barty1884]

ToS certainly was single-threaded.... but considering their modern recommendations are an i3 (entry-level) through to an i7 (power-user), I'm not convinced that's necessarily 100% accurate these days.
https://platform.thinkorswim.com/platform/index.html#!/system-requirements

To be clear, as you've stated you are not 'tech savvy', can you confirm what you mean by "CPU"?
A CPU, strictly speaking, is the Central Processing Unit... the 'heart' of the system. But in this instance, I suspect you're talking about an overall 'computer' for <$500?

 

[DMAN999]

I'd read this and use their recommendations as a guide.
https://orbitalcomputers.com/contents.php?page=best-trading-computers-2018

Personally, I would look at building a Ryzen 5 3600 / B450 based PC with 16 GB 3200 RAM.
Something like this should work very well for you:
PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor ($174.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: ARCTIC Freezer 34 eSports DUO CPU Cooler ($48.00 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard ($114.99 @ B&H)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($73.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial MX500 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1660 6 GB VENTUS XS OC Video Card ($204.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Rosewill TYRFING ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair RMx (2018) 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($99.98 @ Amazon)
Total: $866.92
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-02-12 20:37 EST-0500

But honestly even a Ryzen 5 2600 based system should not have any issue running
thinkorswim pretty well.
Something similar to this:
PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor ($119.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus PRIME B450-PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard ($96.00 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($73.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial MX500 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1660 6 GB VENTUS XS OC Video Card ($204.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Rosewill TYRFING ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair RMx (2018) 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($99.98 @ Amazon)
Total: $744.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-02-12 20:41 EST-0500