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At EMC's Executive Briefing Center, company executives gave a peek into some of its areas of expertise, such as how it is combating hackers and how it is making its mark in the SOHO storage business.

Senior vendor and distribution executives delved into a number of critical channel issues at the Global Technology Distribution Council's annual conference held this year in Newport Beach, Calif.

A week in San Francisco with Larry Ellison and 43,000 of your closest friends.

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CUSTOM SYSTEMS/WHITE BOX REVIEWS

NZXT's new gaming chassis is also a good alternative for servers. The Test Center looks at the Tempest's feature set.

Intel Corp. executives decided last year that the Santa Clara, Calif., chip giant's channel partners—and the small- and midsize-business market—could gain more traction than they were getting from the blade technology tier-one manufacturers were offering. So they went back to the drawing board and returned with an industry first: an all-in-one, top-to-bottom, rackable system that provides bladelike horsepower in an easy-to-deploy, easy-to-manage package.

Windows Vista has advanced graphical elements that place new and heavier workloads on the graphics subsystem. But Diamond Multimedia's Viper x1650 graphics card is up to the task.

Adaptec's PCIe-based Ultra320 SCSI single-channel HBA controller gives system builders lots of flexibility when building storage devices, since it can mix and match with SAS and SATA drives and devices.

Tagan's Dual Engine Series 600 power supply is one of the most silent units on the market.

When it comes to overclocking, Nvidia's nForce 680i SLI motherboard will squeeze the most clock cycles out of Intel's Core 2 Extreme, Core 2, Pentium 4 and Celeron D chips.

Sony's new DRU-830A internal DVD/CD burner is based on the company's 12th generation of optical storage technology and supports both double- and dual-layer DVD formats.

Antec's BK640B chassis provides a solid foundation on which to build state-of-the-art systems that adhere to MicroBTX specifications.

The allure of multicore processors is sure to drive custom-system sales for builders. Elite Computer Systems aims to meet that high-performance bar with its latest motherboard, the PN2 SLI2+.

Foxconn's latest video card, the 7950GT-OC, can help white-box makers beef up systems to handle the video and graphics requirements that Windows Vista will bring.

System builders should take advantage of LSI Logic's new SAS3041X-R serial attached SCSI (SAS) card to build high-performance PC systems. The SAS3041X-R connects to a PCI or PCI-X host bus adapter, so older configurations also can take advantage of SAS drives.

To most system builders RAM has become a commodity item, with price being the primary factor for selecting a vendor. While in many cases, that is a sound philosophy, quality is not something to be discounted. In other words, it can pay off to spend a little more on RAM to reduce the specter of poor performance or system returns.

Hitachi's Travelstar hard drives are probably the best drives for system builders building rugged laptops. The Travelstar 5K160, which uses a perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) that spins at an ultra-quiet 5400 RPM, might be one of the best.

If you're confused by the DVD format wars and are looking for a next-generation optical drive, Sony has an option: the BWU-100A, which is compatible with more disc formats than any other optical drive now on the market.

PCs that are expected to outperform the ordinary need a high-performance power supply that can keep up. Corsair Memory, well-known for its high-end memory modules, has introduced its HX Series of high-performance PC power supplies that is several steps above the ordinary. These power supplies are ideal for use in file servers, audio/video workstations, high-performance PCs and gaming systems.

Tandberg Data this month released a new portable disk technology called RDX QuikStor that aims to surpass existing tape-based archival technologies. The RDX solution can outperform competing tape backups such as DLT-4, DAT-72 and DAT-160.

A mere decade ago, 1-Gbyte hard drives—considered state-of-the-art at the time—were priced at nearly $1,000. Fast forward 10 years, and Seagate has introduced its 750-Gbyte hard drive, the Barracuda 7200.10 750 GB, for $590. This means that the same 1 Gbyte of storage space of yesteryear now costs less than $1. Seagate's timing is good, as hard drives are being used in a lot more than just desktop PCs, and no amount of storage space seems to be too much.

When the CRN Test Center last looked at Microsoft Windows Vista, it was obvious the operating system was far from complete—not a surprise considering it was still in beta version.

Nero's OEM bundle covers about 90 percent of the U.S. market and offers 100 percent compatibility with most recording devices on the market.

The latest iteration of Phoenix Technologies' ImageCast, version 6.0, has a new client environment with a central control console that manages the initial bits placed on system drives during imaging executions.

Buffalo Technology has recently released the DriveStation 300-Gbyte SATA USB 2.0 HDD that can go across both Windows and Macintosh platforms and will cater to smaller budgets.

White-box equipment and storage technology have been evolving at an alarming rate in recent years, and Supermicro's SuperServer 7044H-32R reflects that progress.

Tandberg Data now is offering one of the smallest and most advanced tape drives on the market: The Tandberg 22LTO, which is half the size of typical drives, but with comparable capacity.

Solution providers looking to offer their own brand of notebook computers with no restrictions on the included components should consider selling white box notebooks like ASUS' new Z62F.

Notebooks are slowly and quietly replacing desktop systems in small and big businesses everywhere. Here, CRN engineers take a look at this trend with one new business notebook from Sony and two from Toshiba.

By creating images using an extremely flexible device driver installation process, Acronis’ True Image OEM solution offers an unparalleled disk imaging and disaster recovery solution that few competing vendors can match.

EMC's Clariion AX150 combines its Clariion RAID array architecture with high-capacity Serial ATA II disk drives to deliver a cost-effective network storage solution.

Fortunately for mobile users, Seagate Technology has incorporated perpendicular recording technology into its new line of 2.5-inch Momentus hard drives.

Fast and reliable, Sony's new internal tape drive is reasonably priced and suitable for enterprise as well as low-cost storage solutions.

The CRN Test Center focused on a vendor's low-end offering and what it lacked to see what it takes to successfully build a custom system.

Running at 16X for DVD+R and DVD-R, and at 8X for rewritable DVD+RWs, Samsung’s newest DVD-RW drive has pizzazz.

Designed for professionals and gamers looking for top-notch graphics performance and image quality, the All-In-Wonder card is designed for the PCI Express platform, which provides double the bandwidth of AGP 8X and supports next-generation high-definition blue-laser optical discs.

With the release of the picoPSU-120, Ituner Networks has raised the bar on power supply design.

Today's notebook computers are so full of features, are lightweight and are relatively inexpensive—no one could ask for anything more.

Acer now shipping dual-core notebooks.

Building and selling white-box systems can become a support nightmare for system builders, especially with today’s complex software. LogMeIn Rescue from 3am Labs eases these problems.

The Averatec 4100 notebook is a fast, attractive and good-handling notebook.

In response to the evolution of power supplies, along with motherboards and other peripherals, Antec’s Neo has special features that let system builders create cutting-edge systems.

DDR1 has been the standard in personal computers and mobile systems for quite a few years and with tremendous success.

Prices have dropped to the point where notebooks aren’t associated with an astronomical price tag anymore. These two units offer terrific value, paving the way to an easy sell.

System builders must be very familiar with storage: Every PC needs it, but no amount of storage ever seems to be enough. Fortunately, Seagate Technology has come to the rescue with its new Barracuda 7200.9, a 500-Gbyte Serial ATA (SATA) drive.

Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) and the recently released LSI eight-port SAS Host Bus Adapter (HBA) Controller Kit addresses the architectural limitations of its parallel counterparts.

Antec’s P-180 PC Case is designed for maximum expandability and to silence system noise and dampen vibrations.

High-fidelity audio is being brought to the world of custom systems by Creative Technology’s latest Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum sound cards with technology that surpasses all competing cards in clarity and quality.

VIA’s new VT310-DP motherboard introduces dual processing power and Gigabit Ethernet connectivity to the Mini-ITX format.

To ease the minds of solution providers, there is an entirely new breed of recordable drives that will support both DVD+R and DVD-R, as well as DVD+R Double Layer (DL).

AOpen America has come to the rescue of system builders looking to build a stylish system.

Sun’s new Ultra 20 Workstation is ideal when more power is key.

To accommodate new storage demands, solution providers frequently find themselves performing hard-drive upgrades. Hitachi’s new Travelstar 2.5-inch Hard-Drive Notebook PC Upgrade Kit offers quick upgrades while also providing a portable storage device.

A number of motherboard manufacturers are throwing their weight behind serial-attached SCSI (SAS) by supporting the new technology in adapters and motherboards.

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