Tyan
Thunder K8WE Motherboard: $500
www.tyan.com

Tyan is walking the absolute bleeding edge of technology with its K8WE workstation motherboard, centering on NVIDIA’s nForce Professional chipset. The board supports two Opteron 200-series processors, two graphics cards compatible with NVIDIA’s SLI (Scalable Link Interface) multi-rendering technology, up to 16GB of DDR memory, and plenty of PCI-X slots.

Perhaps you’re wondering who in their right mind would possibly need such a high-end setup. In fact, anyone using multi-threaded rendering software will notice a significant performance improvement with the Tyan board. Up until now, all SLI-capable motherboards have been designed explicitly for gaming. And while eight-channel audio and expansive Serial ATA connectivity might have a place in the desktop world, graphics workstations demand industrial-strength performance.

That degree of speed comes in the form of Opteron 200-series processors, which are now available at frequencies of up to 2.6GHz and with brand new features, such as support for SSE3 multimedia instructions, a 1GHz HyperTransport connection, and an advanced 90 nm manufacturing process.

The nForce Professional chipset is unique in that it combines two components—the nForce 2200 and 2050—to enable dual PCI Express x16 connections, boasting twice the throughput of an nForce4 chipset. A third chip, AMD’s 8131 PCI-X tunnel, exposes three 64-bit expansion slots and connects to an optional LSI Logic Ultra 320 SCSI controller. Two Gigabit Ethernet controllers provide plenty of networking alacrity, while NVIDIA’s nForce Professional 2200 introduces SATA II support for the latest generation of 3 Gbps hard drives.

When you add up the power requirements imposed by two Opterons and a pair of high-end graphics cards, it’s no wonder that the K8WE won’t work with a standard ATX power supply. Tyan doesn’t make any specific wattage requirements, however, an SSI EEB 3.51 split-place power supply is recommended in order to provide the necessary juice. With so many special concessions, the K8WE is most certainly a niche product. But for the artists and engineers out there that can use it, Tyan’s latest design is in a league of its own, currently unrivaled.

THERMALROCK
Circle: $149
www.thermalrock.com

Fans of the Bang & Olufsen Hi-Fi boutique, might recognize ThermalRock’s Circle case as a modish recreation of the BeoSound 9000. But the case doesn’t actually play CDs. Rather, the stylish front-end is a decorative door lit by blue LED lights that covers no less than five 5.25” and two 3.5” drive bays. A pair of USB 2.0 ports and a single FireWire connector sit atop the case for more convenient access.

The case’s interior is extremely roomy, accepting standard ATX motherboards or larger extended ATX server platforms. In addition to the external bays, you’ll find room for up to six hard drives, too. Loaded with equipment, the Circle would normally heat up fairly quickly. Fortunately, ThermalRock bundles two 120mm fans—one for pulling cool air and the other responsible for exhausting the case­—and there’s a spot for another 80mm fan.

ThermalRock’s Circle stands out not only because of its unique design, but also because it offers plenty of room for expansion. A predominantly tool-less installation translates into easy upgrades, while the windowed side panel and blue LED lighting shift the case away from workstation customers and toward stylish power users.