Tyan
Transport VX50
Barebones Server: $5,300
www.tyan.com

Tyan's most recognizable server barebones products are 1U
boxes. They're flexible, with models featuring business-class and desktop processors, along with support for different storage technologies. The 1U form factor is really only big enough to accommodate two CPUs, though. What're you supposed to use when a customer needs more horsepower?

Many of Tyan's 2U rackmount systems have room for up to four chips, but they pale in comparison to the VX50. With space for up to eight dual-core processors, you can either install the VX50 as a pedestal box or a 5U rack box. Think that's crazy? The K8QW motherboard and M4881 CPU board boast 32 DDR memory slots between them. That's room for up to 128GB of RAM in case you're counting. A combination of PCI Express and PCI-X slots should take care of expansion, though dual Gigabit controllers, integrated graphics, and onboard 3 Gbps SATA leave very little to upgrade.

Wacom
Intuos3 9”x12” Tablet: $449
www.wacom.com

Customers with backgrounds in art likely have an i/O preference already. And anyone who favors a tablet knows why it's their first choice. Ergonomics is certainly one top selling point. Productivity is another. Wacom claims that customers who spend time working with images can work faster with a tablet. Then there are the features.

The Wacom Intuos3 is a professional tablet featuring a super-high 5,080 lines per inch of resolution. Control over a mouse cursor is intuitive. Wherever the pen tip goes on the pad, so goes the cursor on screen. And pressure sensitivity in applications such as Photoshop, which supports dynamic control over brush size and opacity, makes the tablet more like a blank canvas.

Comfort is an obvious priority when architecting a pro-level design tool such as the Intuous3. A sloping palm rest reduces fatigue, and an 8-foot cord lets your customers really kick back while they're working. If the 9”x12” tablet doesn't quite fit, Wacom sells five other models from which to choose.

D-Link
DPH-140S VoIP Desk Phone: $134
www.dlink.com

The move to IP telephony can be frightening for a customer averse to change. However, there are some great potential cost savings to be had for those willing to jump. D-Link's DPH-140S IP phone helps realize all of those digital benefits while maintaining the look and feel of traditional phone equipment.

From a usability standpoint, the DPH-140S changes nothing. It sports a speakerphone, a 2.5” LCD display for call information, and an easy-to-navigate menu system. Redial, mute, call transfer, three-way conferencing, call waiting, forwarding, and hold are all fully supported.

Instead of plugging in to an RJ-11 interface, however, the D-Link phone connects to a modem or router using Ethernet. You can either choose to integrate the VoIP Desk Phone into an existing IP phone system or use it independently. Either way, built-in Quality of Service functions help contend with busy multi-user networks and problematic routers. A reasonable price tag makes the sale that much more compelling.

Promise
SuperTrak EX16350: $849
www.promise.com

The marriage between SAS and SATA storage is today's hot ticket item. However, many small business customers may never need to make that jump. The high-end controllers and drives are simply much more expensive. Moreover, existing 10,000 RPM enterprise-class SATA disks are much more reliable versus the 7,200 models used in most desktops.

As such, there's still a market for high-end SATA-only controllers, such as Promise's new SuperTrak EX16350. The board sits in a PCI Express x8 slot enabling RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, and JBOD. True hardware acceleration means that the usual performance penalty you'd see in RAID 6 with tolerance for two drive failures goes away. You can even add hot spares and set them to rebuild automatically.

Promise goes the extra mile to ensure its card is enterprise-ready. Dense, multi-lane connectors keep cables manageable in large arrays. Comprehensive operating system support extends functionality. And a Web-based management screen makes it easy to manipulate arrays remotely.