TRIPP LITE
SmartPro 1200LCD UPS System: $225
www.tripplite.com

WE'VE ALWAYS EMPHASIZED THE IMPORTANCE OF PROTECTING sensitive equipment with battery backup. It’s getting even easier to upsell protection as vendors such as Tripp Lite add management features. The new SmartPro 1200LCD features an onboard LCD display relaying line power status, battery power status, a low/replace indicator, and voltage boost operation. If you’re not there to monitor the SmartPro locally, a USB/serial connection facilitates PC communication. So if the power goes out and the unit’s battery starts running low, software automatically shuts off connected equipment. In the case of a Windows- or Mac-powered machine, that means a graceful shutdown with no data loss.

The SmartPro 1200LCD can either support itself or slide into a rack, populating 2U worth of space. It’s rated for 1200VA, or about 700W of power—-plenty for an entry-level server. Loaded fully, the UPS delivers four minutes of power, which should be more than enough in the event of an emergency.

KONICA MINOLTA
Magicolor 5570 SMB Laser Printer: $1,199
printer.konicaminolta.com

WHEN IT COMES TIME TO STEP things up a notch with your SMB customers’ printing, Konica Minolta’s Magicolor 5570 packs a real punch. The sleek laser printer boasts an 866 MHz processor, includes 256MB of DDR memory (upgradable to 1GB), and already features Vista support. Don’t forget built-in Gigabit Ethernet connectivity, either.

The Magicolor’s performance is a result of the powerful print engine driving it. Expect up to 31 pages per minute in color or 37 ppm in monochrome. Though the first-page-out rating is a relatively slow 14 seconds, 9600x1200 print resolutions at least guarantee that the 5570’s prints look great.

Given only its base specs, Konica’s Magicolor 5570 is a great buy. But the story gets even better when you consider the printer’s flexibility. The 5570 supports an optional duplexer for two-sided printing, a staple finisher, and additional paper trays that increase capacity to 1,600 pages.

NVIDIA
Quadro Plex Model IV: $10,750
www.nvidia.com

WHEN NVIDIA FIRST ANNOUNCED its Quadro Plex rendering systems, we questioned the potential market demand. Not long after, during a dinner with friends, a geologist mentioned that his boss had just ordered four Quadro Plex platforms, and performance compared to the workstation he was used to was simply through the roof. OK, so maybe NVIDIA is really onto something here.

The latest generation Quadro Plex box incorporates new Quadro FX 5600 GPUs—-two of them-—in a chassis able to stand on its own or slide into a 3U rack space. Equipped with four dual-link DVI outputs, 3GB total frame buffer, Genlock, and frame synchronization, the Model IV is loaded with more functionality than your typical graphics workstation.

Of course, performance is the system’s principal draw. The raw horsepower shared between both Quadro FX 5600 GPUs is sufficient enough to drive 64x antialiasing-—an incredibly demanding method for smoothing out jagged lines.

STOREVAULT
S500 Storage Server: $5,500
www.storevault.com

SANS CAN BE INTIMIDATING. THEY'RE MORE DIFFICULT TO DEFINE than NAS or DAS storage solutions, and typically astronomical pricing probably doesn’t help the perception that this is enterprise-only territory. StoreVault, the SMB division of NetApp, pulls SAN technology to a friendlier place with its S500 storage solution. The S500 actually combines NAS and SAN functionality into one 2U box. A closed platform, StoreVault includes 1GB of system memory with 256MB of NVRAM to protect in-flight data. Twelve available SATA bays take a maximum of 6TB, given a 500GB drive in each. A pair of Gigabit Ethernet ports delivers the I/O, while an optional SCSI card extends Ultra 160 support.

The other half of StoreVault’s value lies in software. Network Appliance’s Data ONTAP operating system drives the storage box, enabling the simultaneous NAS/SAN support. StoreVault Manager provides resellers with a Windows-based utility from which to call the shots.

HITACHI GLOBAL STORAGE TECHNOLOGIES
Ultrastar 15K300 SAS Hard Drive: $875
www.hitachigst.com

ENTERPRISE HARD DRIVES GENERALLY SPIN AT ONE OF TWO SPEEDS: 10,000 RPM or 15,000 RPM. You’ll find nearline drives designed to run 24/7 at 7,200 RPM, but for transaction-based applications, minimizing response time means lightning-fast spindle speeds. Historically, stepping up to 15,000 RPM meant sacrificing capacity. But Hitachi’s Ultrastar 15K300 combines the best of speed and space.

The 15,000 RPM, 300 GB enterprise disk comes in SAS, Fibre Channel, and SCSI flavors. The Fibre Channel and SCSI versions are great for customers with existing infrastructures. SAS works well in new platforms where it can be mixed up with SATA drives to strike a real chord between capacity and cost.

Performance is obviously one aspect of the Ultrastar’s allure. Beyond rotational speed, the drive features 16MB of cache, Rotational Vibration Safeguard to maintain performance in the confines of a packed storage server, and workload detector technology.