Cheap alternative to online subscription VPS

[Fourxxxx]

c1borg, many thanks for this info. Nice one!

Unfortunately, looks like not a lot about for less than £80 + delivery on ebay or amazon

A secondhand laptop is a good substitute even if the battery is dead although if the battery has some life in it, it will not shut down with a minor power glitch. Just do a factory reset to get a clean install or better still replace the harddrive with an SSD. SSD's are getting really cheap now especially the something around 100GB that would be plenty big enough for this purpose. Apparently Microsoft is still allowing free upgrades to windows 10 so if you download windows 10 and install the same version (ie home with home) just leaving the product code blank it will authenticate with no problem.

If you have windows pro you can use Remote Desktop to connect to it, this is not available with windows home but you can use the software mentioned above if that is the case.

Many times laptops that have failed it is due to bad ram connections, if you have a laptop lying around that won't boot or crashes a lot try taking the ram sticks out and refitting them.

[c1borg]

c1borg, many thanks for this info. Nice one!

Unfortunately, looks like not a lot about for less than £80 + delivery on ebay or amazon

A secondhand laptop is a good substitute even if the battery is dead although if the battery has some life in it, it will not shut down with a minor power glitch. Just do a factory reset to get a clean install or better still replace the harddrive with an SSD. SSD's are getting really cheap now especially the something around 100GB that would be plenty big enough for this purpose. Apparently Microsoft is still allowing free upgrades to windows 10 so if you download windows 10 and install the same version (ie home with home) just leaving the product code blank it will authenticate with no problem.

If you have windows pro you can use Remote Desktop to connect to it, this is not available with windows home but you can use the software mentioned above if that is the case.

Many times laptops that have failed it is due to bad ram connections, if you have a laptop lying around that won't boot or crashes a lot try taking the ram sticks out and refitting them.

I got mine for £50 it was advertised for £70 she had 2 for sale so accepted my offer I guess you just need to be patient. If you get the Windows 8.1 version you can probably get it cheaper and upgrade to Pro for free. I like it because its small and silent a laptop wouldn't be an option for me, but if it works for you go for it

[eaymon]

Just wanted to add my 2 cents too...

- If you want to be super cheap look for anything that can run linux (rasberry pi $10+, old machines etc) and use a piece of software called wine https://www.metatrader4.com/en/trading- ... tall_linux you may save a few bucks but ymmv on the additional headache

- One area I know that a local machine is better is strategy testing (if you trust in that) it's much faster doing it locally than on a server...i'll need to double check our new High Frequency servers if they have the same issue.
- Empty4 is also a pain in the ass, it is old 32 bit software, so all these newer computers that support multithreading, multiple cpu's etc is lost on Empty4 unless we all upgrade to mt5 just keep that in mind

- Check out the latency that you're getting for your trades to your broker... it can make a huge difference over time... (Live server issue)
I tested the same software in two different locations on global prime and one of them was missing opportunities, and getting in later on trades which costs a couple of pips(both in price movement and spread)... I thought it was only an issue for scalpers but my EA was looking for trades every 30 minutes...

- Also check the cost of electricity, in Ontario, Canada it is 12.8c/Kwh if a computer uses 200w (most are more efficient than that, my full tower pc is 400w) it comes out to $18.43 a month just keep my computer on 24/7

[SnakeFighter]

Hi Eaymon

Just a quick heads-up re Wine on a Raspberry Pi. It’s possible to install Wine, but you don’t generally achieve much by doing so, as it’s running on an ARM processor rather than an x86 one.

I used to run Empty4 on an (Intel) laptop with Ubuntu/Wine and it worked well. But recent my attempt with a RasPi failed!

[SteveHopwood]

I am locking this ridiculous thread because it is irritating me.

Only an idiot fails to recognise the value of Eaymon's service. viewtopic.php?p=156450#p156450

Feel free to bang your heads against whatever lunatic devices you care to leave at the mercy of your electricity supply.

For myself, I can happily continue to run my umpteen demo accounts for bugger all cost per month. Of course, to be able to do so then you have to follow the tips at viewtopic.php?p=140819#p140819