Hello,

is it possible to use WL with less than the official hardware requirements? I plan to buy a Windows-Tablet to use it during holidays for my EOD-Strategy: No Backtesting, only usage of DataManager plus StrategyMonitor for Alerts. I found Standard-Tablets only with an Intel 1.8 GHz processor and 2 GB RAM. Do I need the official hardware requirements even to install WL on such a machine, or do I need them for Backtesting/Optimizer?

Thanks and Regards

Hi,

WL's backtester stays operational on low-end PCs with 2GB RAM (this is the absolute minimum if you're not multitasking). With a simple system like "Moving Average Crossover" (1,2) producing 10K+ trades on small EOD DataSets like MDAX and S&P 100 in a backtest run with all the visualizers enabled, WL is pretty much usable on low end CPUs like Core i3 or the Broadwell 3825U. /Your experience may vary if your system is computationally intensive./

However, your tablet (or e.g. Intel Compute Stick for that matter) will have an Atom whose single core performance is 2-3 times slower than the i3. But since you say it's going to be an EOD system, executing it in 20-30 seconds vs. 5-10 seconds of the i3 won't make substantial difference if you run it once a day only.

EDIT
Having Windows 10 is far more preferred than Windows 8.1 because of its smoother performance. Some older "compute sticks" and tablets may still ship with Windows 8.1.

Eugene, Thanks for your quick reply. You are right, execution time is not important in my case. Now I have a "holiday solution" for my system.

OK, I will look for a Windows 10-Tablet.

Pros:

+ The transformer tablet is indispensable for packing my Windows environment in an anti-theft hidden underarm bag. I hardly notice its weight (0.5kg own weight and 1kg in the keyboard case). Something that you cannot beat with a laptop of any size.
+ Enough performance for Wealth-Lab's everyday tasks. On the Atom Z3735F chip, a backtest that produces 10K trades (and 50K skipped ones) finishes in 25 seconds. My aged 6-core desktop CPU completes it in about 10 seconds so it's a good tradeoff.
+ Even 2GB RAM is okay for very light multitasking or for basic Wealth-Lab scripting and some backtesting (not heavy). With Windows 10 installed on a 32GB eMMC drive, there's enough room to fit business applications (over 20GB free space).
+ While Installing Visual Studio is out of consideration, SharpDevelop is the perfect lightweight companion for smaller development projects on the go (provided that you've got a keyboard case). Can you imagine that some install SQL Server on tablets?
+ With battery of 6,000mAh and greater, after some power management tweaking you can expect the thing to last about all day long under business tasks (not multimedia).

Cons:

- Eye fatigue because everything is tiny and painful for the eyes.
- While UWP apps are mostly okay, the elements of Windows desktop UI are suboptimal for touchscreen compared to Android devices.
- Unfortunately, Wealth-Lab currently remains one of the few applications which doesn't line up very well with high resolution screens. And at 149 PPI and 0.17 dot pitch the typical tablet's resolution is unproportionally high. None of those suggestions in the Wiki (EDIT: as of 2016) really helped when applied but the "125% size" option (which breaks the Strategy Parameters box, though). EDIT 03/02/2018: I have yet to try out some new advices discovered in 2017 with the advent of Windows 10 Creators Update.