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• Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003... (5 offers) Online shop Price Royaldiscount.com $246.91 VioSoftware.com $196.97 SoftwareMedia.com $246.88 Newegg.com $249.99 Discount Mountain $196.99 See more products You can't be too safe when it comes to server-class storage. SAS is the solid bet. Gone are the days of IDE and SCSI hard drives - good riddance! Today's storage landscape is much more flexible, faster, and in many cases, cheaper. Entry-level servers generally use SATA (Serial ATA ) technology. Although the drive manufacturers usually recommend against it, I've found that SATA suffices today on SBS machines performing mail and file server duties for up to 10 client systems at throughputs of up to 75 MB/s per drive. The biggest worry with SATA drives is longevity - they aren't built to withstand the rigors of 24/7 operation and as such are more prone to failure. That's why RAID is practically imperative on a server, whether you opt for RAID 1 or 5, two of the most commonly supported redundancy configurations. In many cases, it may even make sense to mount an externally accessible hot-swappable drive on your pedestal chassis, for easy access. Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) is an even sweeter alternative; according to Seagate Research, it is expected to virtually replace parallel SCSI by 2008. The technology is perfectly suited to mid-range and higher SBS boxes, where it costs the same as SCSI and enables unprecedented levels of flexibility. You see, SAS features transfer rates of 3 Gbit/s, tagged queuing, long and rather easy to handle cables, scalability through expanders, and best of all, SAS controllers are backwards compatible with SATA drives. As a result, it's easy to construct a best-fit combination of reliable SAS and high-capacity SATA drives using a single controller. The Best Bets In Backup External HDD backup is inexpensive and enables plenty of upgradeable capacity. However, it's not the safest way of doing a backup, since hard drives can still fail. Data on a server is almost always more sensitive than your average workstation. SBS gives you the ability to map each user's My Documents folder to the server, and of course, mailboxes are held in an Exchange store. Still, if there's a robbery or fire on the premises, you could lose all of your data. Don't even think about deploying SBS 2003 without first exploring options for redundant backup. Tape backup is the traditional fallback, but there are enough downsides to tape that I shy away from it whenever possible. Optical media is a viable option, too. Then again, spanning a 146 GB partition across DVDs - even dual-layer - is a painful proposition. More specialized devices, such as Iomega's REV Autoloader, give you the convenience of cartridges across a much faster interface than tape, but also require a notable investment. External hard drives deliver a better balance of price, capacity, and performance, especially now that eSATA drives and enclosures are becoming more common. On a basic server with two mirrored 160 GB SATA drives, use a single USB 2.0 drive to make daily incremental backups. For larger data repositories, check out hardware such as Sonnet's Fusion 400 (www.sonnettech.com), a four-drive eSATA enclosure able to address super-sized SBS servers with much greater performance.

• Wondertouch's ParticleIllusion Wondertouch makes ParticleIllusion , which gives home users professional level particle effects such as smoke, explosions and water sprays. Adding a little pizzazz to your movies couldn't be easier. Backgrounds Digital Juice makes Jump Packs , which are collections of high-quality animated backgrounds. While a little pricey for the budget conscious, they do save you the time of having to make your own animated backgrounds. Titles Most editing programs have a basic title engine built in. If you are looking to make exciting three-dimensional titles, then you will have to buy a separate titling program. On the low budget side, we have Blufftitler , which gives you tremendous features for only $40. For those on expense accounts, Borisfx offers Graffiti , which promises to do everything but wash your clothes.   Conclusion You don't have to buy all this stuff at once. Most people buy the bare essentials and then slowly acquire the other stuff. B and H has been around for ages and has almost every product imaginable. They also have huge catalogs (the size of phonebooks) that also serve as great educational guides. Academic discounts for students and teachers may take the sting out of some of the software prices. Savings of 50% or more can be had, if you can prove educational affiliation. So we have shown you what to buy, but how do you actually make the home movie? In part 2 of this guide, we will take you step-by-step through the whole process of making a home movie with special effects. Maybe George Lucas will soon face some tough competition.

• System Review: Digital Storm's Gaming Dominator

  Many people love the craftsmanship that goes into a custom-built performance PC, but not everyone can justify the expense. Buyers unwilling to pay exorbitant build fees and unable to assemble their own machines have often been forced to rely upon on tech-savvy relatives, neighbors, or friends to make recommendations and assist with building and testing. Unpredictable quality and an almost total lack of support are the typical results of these cost-savings efforts (Ed.: raise your hands if you've been that "nice guy," who offered to help build a friend's machine, only to become the 24-hour tech support line when they had an issue with it). But what if you had a truly skilled friend who, for a few hundred dollars, would build your system, overclock it for maximum performance, provide lifetime technical support, replace anything that breaks for the first three years, and was even willing to buy it back for the first 30 days if you found a serious problem? Digital Storm recently told us that it could be that friend, and we wanted to put the company to the test. Long-time custom builder with an eight-year reputation (supported by its A+ Better Business Bureau rating), Digital Storm now sells several pre-packaged configurations at steeply discounted prices compared to their traditional build-to-order service. And unlike those large faceless corporations who try to offer similar options, every component Digital Storm uses is a high-end off-the-shelf part, making upgrades easy and relatively pain-free. Digital Storm Gaming Dominator SpecificationsCPUIntel Core i7-950 (3.20 GHz, 8.0 MB Cache) Overclocked to 3.83 GHz (23x 166.6 MHz)CPU Cooler120 mm Single-Fan RadiatorMotherboardMSI X58 Pro BIOS 7.3 (04-17-2009) Intel X58/ICH10R Chipset, LGA-1366RAMMushkin 6 GB DDR3-1333 CAS 9 at DDR3-1333 CAS 8-8-8-19 (1T)GraphicsXFX GeForce GTX 295 1.79 GB 576/1242MHz GPU/Shader, GDDR3-2016CaseCooler Master HAF 932Hard DriveWestern Digital Caviar Black 1 TB 7,200 RPM, 32 MB Cache SATA 3.0 Gb/sSoundIntegrated HD AudioNetworkIntegrated Gigabit NetworkingPowerPC Power & Cooling Silencer 750W ATX 12V 2.2 / EPS 12V, Active PFCOpticalOptiarc 20X DVD±R, 8X DVD+RW 6X DVD-RWRemovableNoneSoftwareOSWindows Vista Home Premium x64 SP1ProductivityNoneGamesNoneAccessoriesMonitorNoneKeyboardNoneMouseNoneSpeakersNoneWarranty and PriceWarranty PeriodThree Years Hardware, Lifetime SupportPrice$2,233 We priced out every component in the Gaming Dominator at our favorite discount vendors and found a $300 difference before-shipping. That’s $200 post-shipping, since Digital Storm currently offers a $100 instant rebate to cover total shipping value on this product. See more products Intel Core i7 I7-920 Quad Core... Dell Home $349.99 TheSource $279.50 EagleDirectUSA $305.22 Apogee Source $305.25 Compuvest $308.11