Gigabyte
GA-M68SM-S2 Motherboard: $77
www.gigabyte.us

THERE WAS ONCE A TIME when NVIDIA dominated the chipset scene. Back then, such intense popularity was a big surprise because the company was so well known for its graphics chips. Nevertheless, NVIDIA developed some exciting RAID functionality and a celebrated sound system that could encode Dolby Digital in real-time. Proven as a real contender on the chipset scene, NVIDIA recently unveiled its GeForce 7150 for AMD’s Athlon 64 processors. Sporting massive integration, the chipset is less of an enthusiast platform and more of a play on value.

Gigabyte’s GA-M68SM-S2 motherboard centers on the GeForce 7150. Four memory slots support up to 16GB of DDR2 800 memory, endearing the platform to a 64-bit version of Vista. The integrated DirectX 9 graphics core is also Vista-capable. Dual display support gives way to one DVI and one VGA output on the board’s back panel.

Gamers looking to expand can add discrete graphics through a PCI Express x16 slot. PCI Express x1 and standard PCI slots can handle any other peripherals your customer might want to add. Some of the board’s other integrated extras include eight-channel audio, Gigabit Ethernet, a quartet of SATA connectors, and FireWire 400.

SEAGATE
Barracuda 7200.11 1TB Hard Drive: $329
www.seagate.com

ADDING SPACE TO A STORAGE SERVER HAPPENS IN ONE OF two ways. Either you populate the 12 or 16 drive bays with modestly sized hard disks and then tack on a JBOD when there isn’t any room left to grow, or you start with big drives in order to postpone the need for an upgrade as long as possible. With Seagate’s new 1TB Barracuda 7200.11, you might just be able to put that upgrade off indefinitely.

Seagate seems to enhance its drive technology quietly, in step with incremental capacity improvements. Most obvious, of course, is the 11th-generation drive’s expansive room to store information. The smallest 7200.11 is still a staggering 500GB. The 750GB and 1TB drives constitute Seagate’s mid-range and top-end, respectively. Also larger is the drive’s data cache, now a whopping 32MB. As a result of the large cache, 3 Gb/s signaling rate, and 7200 RPM spindle speed, Seagate says its flagship can sustain 105 MBps data rates. The drive’s average latency is a scant 4.16ms, meaning it’s very responsive too.

Seagate is also using its leadership position in perpendicular magnetic recording to help improve reliability. Higher areal density means fewer platters are needed to hit that 1TB landmark. MTBF ratings creep up to 750,000 hours, which inches closer to the enterprise drives bearing million-hour ratings. A five-year warranty gives your customers additional peace of mind that they won’t lose their data.

The last stat to really analyze is Seagate’s power management attributes at 1TB. For each terabyte Barracuda 7200.11 you install, expect an operating average of 12W. Obviously, in a 16-drive enclosure, power consumption adds up quickly. That’s still significantly lower than terabyte drives competing against the Barracuda, though.

INTEL
Entry Server Board S3000AH: $219
www.intel.com

SMBS WANT THE UPTIME THAT LARGER ORGANIZATIONS shoot for without the insane costs. Easier said than done, right? Meet Intel’s S3000AH, a true server platform with roots that extend closer to many of your customers’ workstations.

The S3000AH centers on Intel’s 3000 server chipset. Check out its spec sheet. You’ll probably recognize most of the core logic’s features. Processor support, for example, includes the Pentium D, Pentium Extreme Edition, Pentium 4, and Celeron D—-nothing to write home about. The 3000 also recognizes Intel’s multi-core Xeon 3000-series chips, which are much more suited to businesses. Installing a Xeon X3230 CPU in the board’s single LGA775 socket taps the power of four execution cores, 8MB of L2 cache, a 95W power envelope, and a 1066 MHz bus.

Add DDR2 memory support to the board’s feature list. Drop in up to 8GB running at speeds as high as 667 MHz and feel free to use ECC-equipped modules for better reliability. There’s no need to worry about graphics. Intel integrates ATI’s ES1000 core and 16MB of memory onboard, leaving more room for server-oriented expansion.

One PCI Express x1 slot, one x4 slot, and one x8 slot are enough for a high-performance RAID card, an extra networking controller, and an eSATA board. A pair of standard PCI slots accommodates older add-ins, as well. If your entry-level server doesn’t emphasize storage, Intel’s four built-in SATA 3 GB/s ports with RAID 0 and 1 support should suffice. The real value here lies in offering the stability and performance benefits of a true Xeon platform complemented by the value inherent to Intel’s Core microarchitecture technology.

LINKSYS
WVC200 Wireless PTZ Internet Camera: $299
www.linksys.com

I STILL REMEMBER TRYING to set up my first IP security camera several years ago. The experience included lackluster picture quality, a separate audio cable requirement, and perhaps the clumsiest Web configuration screen I’d ever seen. After two nights spent fiddling with it, I set it aside permanently.

So you can understand why I was a little skeptical of Linksys’ Wireless PTZ Internet Camera at first. But after taking a good look at the camera’s spec sheet, I had a glimmer of hope that the technology had come far enough along to address those early weaknesses I’d encountered. Indeed, the WVC2000 is much easier to set up, much easier to use, and loaded with a lot more functionality. The Wireless PTZ leverages MPEG-4 compression to deliver a sharp 6480x480 picture at fluid frame rates. An 802.11g transmitter means you don’t have to run CAT5 to the camera, either. And a built-in mic makes it a lot easier to capture audio.

Flexibility is an important part of security coverage. The WVC200 can pan, tilt, and zoom in on a shot. An IR filter cut lets you pair the camera up to an IR lamp and capture footage with low or no lighting. Linksys arms its Wireless PTZ with a built-in Web server that supports up to 10 simultaneous users. When nobody’s available to watch in real-time, a special Security Mode sends a message and video clip to several email addresses whenever motion is detected.