Question I'm looking to upgrade my PC for gaming/futures trading.

[Anyx]

This is my current PC:
https://pcpartpicker.com/user/Anyx/saved/c6XdnQ
I'm looking to upgrade it, mainly for Ninjatrader 8, but I am a gamer. Was looking at the CPU/Motherboard/Ram.

Should I go with the i7 9700k or the i9 9900k? Based on my small amount of research, there isn't a large difference, besides the hyperthreading.

For the motherboard, I was thinking either the MSI MPG Z390 GAMING EDGE AC or the ASRock Z390 Taichi Ultimate. I do have a lot of hard drives that require the SATA ports, but the motherboard compatibility with whatever CPU/Ram is used would be more important. Are there specific suggestions for the i7 9700k or i9 9900k?

For the ram, I'm pretty baffled for how fast it truly is compared to it's CAS. I have been told g skill ram is very good, but have no idea really what kind to get.

I don't have a budget set in stone for these upgrades.

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Aeacus]

Since Ninjatrader 8 has so low sys reqs (source), that isn't needed to consider here, which leaves gaming. Currently, best CPU to go for gaming is i5-9600K due to it's good price to performance ratio. Core i5 also has 6 cores/threads which is enough for any game out there and it can handle game streaming as well (if you're into that). Core i7 and Core i9 are good for workstation PCs where plenty of cores/threads are needed.

As far as MoBo goes, pick the one that you like most feature wise. For i5-9600k, i7-9700K and i9-9900K, any 300-series MoBo (B360, H370, Z370 or Z390 chipset) with LGA1151 socket will do. B360, H370 and Z370 chipset MoBos need the latest BIOS though.

For RAM, brand doesn't make much difference. G.Skill is good and so is Corsair. Though i'm using Kingston RAM in my PCs.

So, here are 2x build upgrade suggestions for you:
1) Budget upgrade (which i'd pick):

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i5-9600K 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor ($264.89 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: ARCTIC - Freezer 33 eSports ONE (Black/Red) CPU Cooler ($37.49 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI - MPG Z390 GAMING EDGE AC ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($189.89 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($109.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 250 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (Purchased For $0.00)
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For $0.00)
Video Card: MSI - GeForce GTX 970 4 GB Video Card (2-Way SLI) (Purchased For $0.00)
Video Card: MSI - GeForce GTX 970 4 GB Video Card (2-Way SLI) (Purchased For $0.00)
Case: Cooler Master - HAF X ATX Full Tower Case (Purchased For $0.00)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - FOCUS Plus Gold 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($109.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $712.25
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-04-08 11:47 EDT-0400

Few words
Like said above, for gaming i5-9600K is best CPU, so put one in.
Also upgraded CPU cooler from (relatively) poor performing Hyper 212 Evo to Arctic Freezer 33 eSports One. Besides having better cooling, new CPU cooler also matches your black & red theme.
MoBo is one of the two you picked out.
For gaming 16GB of RAM is more than enough, so put 2x 8GB 3000 Mhz RAM in. RAM is normal profile and with black heatsinks. You can pick red heatsinks as well if you want RAM to stick out some more (pcpp).
And lastly, i replaced your old and low build quality Corsair PSU with much modern and good build quality Seasonic PSU.


2) No budget limitation (overkill in many ways):

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i9-9900K 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor ($509.99 @ Walmart)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! - Dark Rock Pro 3 67.8 CFM Fluid Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooler ($119.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI - MPG Z390 GAMING EDGE AC ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($189.89 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($199.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 250 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (Purchased For $0.00)
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For $0.00)
Video Card: MSI - GeForce GTX 970 4 GB Video Card (2-Way SLI) (Purchased For $0.00)
Video Card: MSI - GeForce GTX 970 4 GB Video Card (2-Way SLI) (Purchased For $0.00)
Case: Cooler Master - HAF X ATX Full Tower Case (Purchased For $0.00)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - PRIME Ultra Titanium 750 W 80+ Titanium Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($199.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $1219.75
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-04-08 11:57 EDT-0400

Few words
Compared to the build above, everything got changed, except MoBo. Starting off, there's i9-9900K in there with it's 8 cores and 16 threads.
Since Core i9 is far more powerful than Core i5, only the best of air cooling would do and so, put in Dark Rock Pro 3, which is only few degrees short of the king of air coolers (NH-D15) while looking considerably better.
RAM also got an upgrade in form of 2x 16GB 3000 Mhz. Though, since Dark Rock Pro 3 is so big, only normal-profile RAM fits under it, hence why there's Corsair RAM here as well and not G.Skill. Also, even if you'd go with G.Skill RGB RAM for eyecandy, Dark Rock Pro 3 would hide the RAM entirely, making RGB RAM pointless. Note: install RAM before installing CPU cooler, it's easier this way.
And lastly, put in the best PSU money can buy at current date: Seasonic PRIME Ultra 750 (80+ Titanium). The Seasonic Focus+ 750 (80+ Gold) in above build is also good but PRIME series is the flagship of Seasonic and only PSU series in the world that comes with 12 years! of warranty. Oh, Focus+ has 10 years of warranty. (All my 3 PCs: Skylake, Haswell and AMD are also powered by Seasonic while i have the PRIME 650 (80+ Titanium) unit in Skylake build. Full specs with pics in my sig.)

With Core i9 and 32GB of RAM (with possibility to upgrade to 64GB), that PC is more like a high-end workstation PC (ideal for video rendering), rather than gaming PC.

 

[ScrewySqrl]

you can also go with an AMD build:

PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/XQd9MZ
Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/XQd9MZ/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 2700 3.2 GHz 8-Core Processor ($224.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI - B450M GAMING PLUS Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($79.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill - Aegis 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($77.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Intel - 660p Series 512 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($65.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Hitachi - Deskstar 7K2000 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($46.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: XFX - Radeon RX 580 4 GB Video Card ($179.99 @ Amazon)
Case: DIYPC - Zondda-O ATX Mid Tower Case ($42.85 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - G 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($69.00 @ Amazon)
Total: $787.59
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-04-08 12:30 EDT-0400

 

[ElectrO_90]

you can also go with an AMD build:

PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/XQd9MZ
Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/XQd9MZ/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 2700 3.2 GHz 8-Core Processor ($224.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI - B450M GAMING PLUS Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($79.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill - Aegis 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($77.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Intel - 660p Series 512 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($65.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Hitachi - Deskstar 7K2000 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($46.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: XFX - Radeon RX 580 4 GB Video Card ($179.99 @ Amazon)
Case: DIYPC - Zondda-O ATX Mid Tower Case ($42.85 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - G 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($69.00 @ Amazon)
Total: $787.59
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-04-08 12:30 EDT-0400

I thought if he went X470 he can then use the sli as well. and makes this even cheaper.
Also doesn't need all the drives you have listed, so can save about $300 on this if not more

 

[Anyx]

The ninjatrader 8 'recommended specs' aren't taking into account any indicators or systems added. With my current trading setup, it is quite slow, sometimes hindering my trading. That is one reason why I'm going above and beyond, and the trading situation is my primary focus (it lets me buy more toys ).

With that being said, would the i7 9700 be sufficient on the lower end, or just go up to the 9900 for another 100$? What would the hyperthreading actually do for me?

I also noticed for all of the ram options, you all chose 3000 mhz. Is that the go to speed? Is 3000 to 3600 not noticable?

 

[Aeacus]

The ninjatrader 8 'recommended specs' aren't taking into account any indicators or systems added. With my current trading setup, it is quite slow, sometimes hindering my trading. That is one reason why I'm going above and beyond, and the trading situation is my primary focus (it lets me buy more toys ).

According to the Ninjatrader 8 staff member, recommended specs are:

Recommended PC Requirements

NinjaTrader 8 was designed to take full advantage of modern PC architecture. To achieve the highest possible level of performance, NinjaTrader 8 will utilize all available CPU cores and additional memory resources. Depending on your actual usage with NinjaTrader you may need more or less resources as there is no one size fits all recommendation. Note: If you do plan on running strategy optimizations then having additional memory will be of direct benefit, the amount of additional memory needed is proportional to the number of CPU cores available.

• 2 (GHz) or faster quad core 64-bit processor
• 8 GB RAM
• DirectX 10 compatible graphics card
• SSD Hard Drive

source: https://ninjatrader.com/support/for...31-nt8-minimum-and-recomended-spec#post671900

So, you'd be looking towards at least 4 core CPU that can do 2 Ghz, 8GB of RAM, DX10 GPU and SSD as an OS drive. And since needed RAM amount is double of CPU cores, using 6 core CPU would need 12GB of RAM. 8 core CPU = 16GB of RAM.
Like i said above, these specs are way too low to be considered when looking hardware upgrade. As far as why your current system is slow on running it, your PC could be filled with bloatware hogging the system resources for all i know.

With that being said, would the i7 9700 be sufficient on the lower end, or just go up to the 9900 for another 100$? What would the hyperthreading actually do for me?

Hyperthreading virtually doubles the cores of a CPU and is helpful for those programs that actually utilize hyperthreading, e.g video rendering, 3D design, virtual machines etc. Since Ninjatrader 8 uses all CPU cores, including virtual ones, hyperthreading does help during optimization.

I also noticed for all of the ram options, you all chose 3000 mhz. Is that the go to speed? Is 3000 to 3600 not noticable?

3000 Mhz RAM has the best price to performance ratio. Also, 3000 is nice round number.
Why we don't suggest 3200+ Mhz RAM, well, here's a good video for you to watch:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_Yt4vSZKVk

 

[ScrewySqrl]

I thought if he went X470 he can then use the sli as well. and makes this even cheaper.
Also doesn't need all the drives you have listed, so can save about $300 on this if not more

SLI is a dying feature, you are better off now going with the best single-card solution you can afford,

 

[ElectrO_90]

SLI is a dying feature, you are better off now going with the best single-card solution you can afford,

Maybe you missed the stuff he already has, I don't think he wants to change everything if he doesn't have to. And he doesn't have to