ADAPTEC
Serial Attatched SCSI 58300: $360
www.adaptec.com

IF YOU’RE LOKING FOR AN EASY (AND INEXPENSIVE) WAY to add some external storage to one of your customer’s servers and don’t mind leaning on the proven PCI-X bus interface, check out Adaptec’s Serial Attached SCSI 58300 SAS controller. The card offers eight ports of external connectivity running at 3 Gb/s. SFF-8088 connectors help keep cable clutter to a minimum by enabling four ports per link. The Serial Attached SCSI 583000 card itself drops into a 64-bit, 133 MHz expansion slot. And it’s managed by Adaptec’s Storage Manager software suite. The low-profile Serial card doesn’t boast the hardware acceleration you’d find on the 8-port cards selling for twice as much, but it still includes a lot of RAID functionality found on those boards. Bootable array support, auto-rebuild, and background initialization are three examples.

The value here is apparent in the 58300’s sub-$400 price tag. While it’s true that the card is an HBA, reliant on a host processor to plow through basic RAID 0, 1, 10, and JBOD configurations, any small business server with a pair of quad-core processors is going to have plenty of horsepower to spare. More important is the ability to connect up to eight SAS/SATA disks externally or as many as 128 drives in separate chassis using expander technology. Overall, the board offers a great path into entry-level direct-attached storage.

CHIEF
CM7W12U Flat Panel Automated Swing Arm: $1,199
www.chiefmfg.com

ITS ALL WELL AND GOOD TO mount signage on a wall, but what if you’re forced to work with an angle that just doesn’t look good? Chief’s new CM7W12U automated swing arm can help—from a distance. The mount holds flat panel displays of up to 60”, sitting flush against the wall at 4.6 inches. The stand has 12” of extension, can swivel up to 28 degrees with a 42” display, tilts seven degrees up and 20 degrees down, and boasts a maximum capacity of 180 pounds. Chief bundles an infrared remote control with the CM7W12U, which gives your customer the power to adjust his TV at will. Two preset buttons on the remote hold programmed favorite positions for later.

INTEL
DX38BT Desktop Motherboard: $249
www.intel.com

FOR A WHILE, IT DIDN'T APPEAR AS IF INTEL WAS GOING to unveil a motherboard based on its own X38 Express chipset. Instead, several of its third-party board partners were carrying the torch as Intel prepared for its follow-up X48. The chip giant has changed its tune, though, and is now talking about the new flagship of its enthusiast-oriented Extreme motherboard family. Like the D975XBX2 before it, Intel’s DX38BT is an ATX design. The full-sized form factor plays an integral role in accommodating all of the hardware built onto the board. For example, you’ll find three PCI Express x16 slots, two of which are true 16-lane connectors compliant with the 2.0 spec. The third will take an x16 card but is only wired for four lanes of throughput. In addition to the PCI Express connectivity, you also get a pair of standard PCI slots. Officially, the DX38BT supports CrossFire technology, though we’ve heard whispers of another multi-card rendering scheme working its way into the board’s spec sheet as well.

Naturally, Intel enables support for its fastest Core 2 Extreme chips, but you can also drop Core 2 Quad, Core 2 Duo, and Pentium dual-core CPUs into the board’s 775-pin socket interface. Because the top-end Core 2 Extreme chips operate on 1333 MHz front side buses, the DX38BT also features the accelerated bus speed setting. In addition, Intel is only offering its top-end model with DDR3 memory support at speeds of up to 1333 MHz, providing a nicely synchronized clock.

All of the X38 Express chipset’s niceties are turned on, including eight-channel high-definition audio, Gigabit Ethernet through the 82566DC controller, 12 USB 2.0 ports, six SATA 3 Gb/s connectors, FireWire 400, and a single parallel ATA interface. Of course, the entire board is passively cooled, helping resellers keep noise to a minimum.

ADOBE
Acrobat 8 Professional: $449
www.adobe.com

ADOBE READER IS A STAPLE IN most businesses because it’s a free download with a huge install base. If your customer likes using Adobe Reader, he’ll love the utility afforded by Acrobat 8 Professional, which includes a lot of familiar content creation functionality plus a handful of new features. If you’re wondering why anyone would need to use Acrobat to create a document when they already have a word processor, try sharing a file created in Office 2007 with a friend still stuck using 2003. He’ll have to download a compatibility package, and even then, if you’ve used some of the new suite’s unique features, he won’t see them as intended. Switch over to Acrobat 8 Professional, though, and anyone can see the complete document, whether they’re using Windows, Mac OS, Linux, or Solaris.

Some of the features introduced with release 8 include PDF packages containing multiple Acrobat documents, shared file reviews (including users running the Reader by itself), the ability to permanently delete sensitive information, archiving of Microsoft Outlook email, the ability to save documents for Microsoft Word, AutoCAD support, and an attractive new interface. As a content creation tool, Adobe Acrobat far outstrips ordinary word processors. The 8th release focuses on distribution, collaboration, and data collection.