I am the customer.

Oh I meant that if a particular trader wants to use a 2x2 layout of 19" SXGA+ monitors or something instead of 4/6/whatever vertical 30" Dell monitors then you should let them use their preferred layout. It can be a pain to get used to a new layout when you're used to having your windows arranged in a particular way. That pain can end up costing you a lot of money.

I'm just trying to get a lay of the land to hone in on budget.

I mean it's going to depend on what software you need to run on the client box. You can imagine that there are traders who just need to run an X server, ssh client, and Bloomberg Anywhere. It's a different story if you need Bloomberg, Eikon, Excel, 3rd party pricing software, OMS/EMS, and god knows what else.

Separately from that you need to consider what sort of research they're going to be doing. Are they going to be doing research on the client? Are we talking Bloomberg and Excel or some heavy lifting involving multiple machines and GPUs. Are they running VMs on the client?

The guy I asked took a position doing something /r/privacy would take issue with and making at least twice my offer.

Ha. I know what you mean.