Some custom systems builders privately worry that Acer’s recent market share gains may be their loss. The Taiwanese manufacturer surged past Dell this year to become the world’s second largest PC manufacturer, largely on the strength of its notebook sales.

The fear is that a lean global PC company with buying power that rivals market leader Hewlett-Packard can build and sell systems at a significantly lower cost than custom systems builders. So what else is new? Fifteen years ago it was Dell that was going to eat custom systems builders’ lunch. Then, a few years back, HP solved most of its inventory and manufacturing problems, resulting in quick to market systems with prices rivaling those from systems builders.

HP, Dell and now Acer may have figured out the pricing gambit, but what they struggled with is how to match the service and support offered by custom systems builders. Got a problem with an Acer system? Try calling customer support for help.

The custom systems business ceased to be a pricing game years ago. People buy custom systems because they can get exactly the system they want from a solution provider who supports the product he or she built. Over the years, systems builders haven’t just built PCs; they’ve built trust.

Rather than wringing hands over a rising global PC manufacturer, systems builders need to leverage the trust factor to grow their businesses. Global PC manufacturers have yet to figure out how to conjure trust from a price list or a spreadsheet.

Secure Digital Extreme Capacity (SDXC) is finally coming to fruition, and sooner than you think.

According to reports that were leaked yesterday, SDXC will be coming to laptops in a big way starting in early 2010. Manufacturers including Dell, Lenovo and HP are working on new notebooks that will include the latest SD card standard.

These newest products will be based on the upcoming 32nm Arrandale mobile processors from Intel. The Arrandale chips have integrated graphics in the same package as the CPU, which means lower power consumption and heat, two crucial factors when it comes to notebooks.

The SDXC platform is very attractive for both mobile and desktop system builders. Regardless of the system, SDXC will give your customers 300 MB/sec. transfer speeds along with capacity up to 2 TB. For notebook systems, and especially netbook systems, this means near-unlimited storage is available without trying to fit the latest and greatest hard drive inside the machine. For desktop systems, this is attractive for system backups, transferring media, and bringing media from your main system to a media player connected to a TV.

Reaching the 2 TB capacity milestone will probably take some time, but you can expect initial capacities of 32, 64, and 128 GB.

The only real drawback to SDXC right now is bandwidth. In current systems, SD and SDHC cards are read via an internal USB 2.0 connection, which is too slow for SDXC. For now, system builders will need to use an internal PCI Express connection, or if the system is configured for it, a USB 3.0 connection.

The Consumer Electronics Show is just over a month away, and you can bet the farm that dozens of different system builders and accessory manufacturers will bring SDXC tech to their booths.

As reported earlier this year, the next wave of Core iX processors from Intel will be hitting the streets in the first quarter of 2010. Dual-core, 32nm, LGA1156 Core i3 and i5 processors with clock speeds ranging from 2.93 to 3.46 GHz should offer some excellent performance value for system builders interested in entry-level and/or mid-range desktops. Some of these Clarkdale chips are even more attractive due to low pricing, which goes from USD $284 for the dual-core 3.46 GHz Core i5 all the way down to $123 for the dual-core 2.93 GHz Core i3. There is even a 2.8 GHz dual-core Pentium chip for $87.

What really catches our eye is the upcoming Core i9 series. Based on the LGA1366 socket, these 32nm, six-core Gulftown processors will run on 130W of power, come with 12 MB of L3 cache, and have an operating frequency of at least 2.8 GHz which will ramp up to at least 3.23 GHz thanks to Turbo Mode. No exact release date or pricing is available yet, but we do have some benchmark results.

PC Lab in Poland got their hands on a six-core Gulftown chip, and the performance was head and shoulders above comparable Core i7 chips. The 2.8 GHz Gulftown showed a 50 percent overall performance jump over a Core i7 920, which isn’t a surprise since the Core i9 has six cores instead of four.

When it came to overclocking, the Core i9 chip made to a blistering 4.32 GHz, which is extraordinary when you consider the BIOS and motherboard hurdles the Core i9 had to deal with. X58 motherboards have the proper socket, but current models and BIOS versions aren’t meant to mingle with six-core processors. Knowing Intel, a new chipset will accompany the Core i9 processors, or at the very least you will see a plethora of board revisions and BIOS updates.

If you consider yourself a high-end system builder, then the Core i9 family is certainly a game-changer for you. Anyone who demands the highest performance possible should be on the lookout come January.

Systems builders hoping to sell virtualization to their SMB clients might consider giving it away for free. Some custom systems builders report that they’re installing the free version of VMware on new servers as well as putting it on customers’ existing systems. Of course the free software is a stripped down version and is more of a marketing ploy to give SMBs a taste of virtualization. But who cares?

Marketing is what’s needed if custom systems builders are to sell virtualization to their smaller SMB clients. If you listen to VMware, the company claims that its fastest growing customer segment is companies with fewer than 100 employees. And some market research companies project that 50 percent of SMBs will embrace virtualization in the next year.

Geez, that must mean that SMBs have experienced a virtualization epiphany and are flocking to VMware in droves. I don’t think so. SMBs, if they do understand the benefits of virtualization, still struggle with why, as a little guy with just a few servers, do they need it.

SMBs can go directly to VMware and download the virtualization software on their own. But I don’t think many are. SMBs need to be shown the virtues of virtualization by a trusted partner that understands their business. That’s what many custom systems builders do. The virtualization conversation is a great way to cement existing relationships, build new ones, and sell more consulting services along with custom systems. Sometimes it makes sense to give stuff away for free.

Direct X 11 is here, so where’s the new graphics hardware from Nvidia? Nowhere to be seen…

When Nvidia first announced its GT300 series of GPUs, the release date was set to 10/2009. Well, October has come and gone, and no next-gen Nvidia cards showed up – although the release of more GT 200 card models is good for the mid-range system builder. There has been little in official word from the graphics giant. However, during a financial conference call with analysts, Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang said that the GT300 cards would be delayed until Q1 of the 2011 fiscal year, which for Nvidia is January 26 through April 26 in 2010.

If one is to give Nvidia a little elbow room, the delay means we wouldn’t see new hardware until February, or maybe even March. Going with the latter means the GT300 cards (presumably a GTX 380 and GTX 360) would hit the market roughly six months after AMD’s Direct X 11-capable HD 5000 series cards.

Not only does AMD have four high to mid range models available in the 5800 and 5700 series already, but a dual-GPU 5970 is expected within the next few weeks, and 5600 and 5300 series cards should arrive in the next few months.

While no official reason is being given for the delay, the culprit may be the lack of 40nm chips available for use in the GT300 series. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has yet to reach its full manufacturing capacity when it comes to 40nm processors, and everyone involved is feeling the squeeze.

If the GT300 series doesn’t launch until Q1 2010, Nvidia is in real danger of losing some serious market share to their friends over at ATI.

As a system builder, you’re probably living by the “best performance at minimal cost” philosophy. Going by this mantra isn’t a new revelation by any means, but new technology will always give a system builder a moment of pause. In most cases, adopting new technology, be it hardware or software, is the best course of action. However, there can be scenarios where the latest and greatest tech can be placed on the backburner until a more appropriate time, or just skipped altogether.

An upcoming example of unnecessary early adoption is the new SATA standard, SATA 3/SATA III/SATA 6Gbps, whatever you like to call it. Does SATA 3 offer a substantial performance gain over SATA 2? Theoretically speaking...yes. SATA 3 will offer speeds up to 600 MB/sec., compared to the 300 MB/sec. max with SATA 2. Double the throughput is always good, but even in 2009, this is overkill. Current hard drives aren’t even taking full advantage of the 300 MB/sec. throughput of SATA 2, so there really is no rush to adopt a standard that's twice as fast.

If you really want to get SATA 3 in your system(s), there are some options available. Several P55 and X58 motherboards have SATA 3 on board, including the Gigabyte boards we mentioned in the USB 3.0 post a few days ago. When it comes to hard drives, the $300 Seagate Barracuda XT is the only SATA 3 drive on the market at this time.

Just like USB 3.0, a lot will change come CES in 2010. I think the biggest difference between the adoption of USB 3.0 and SATA 3 is the time between them and their respective older brothers. USB 3.0 is coming nearly a decade after USB 2.0 hit the market, so there is a lot of catching up to do. With SATA 3, it’s coming only three or so years after SATA 2 was introduced, so there isn’t nearly as much elbow room performance-wise.

Are you looking to adopt SATA 3 as soon as possible, or will you let it wait in the wings for another 6 months? Let us know what you think!

Ah, the Universal Serial Bus. Nearly 14 years after USB 1.0 hit the market, and over nine years since USB 2.0 brought about unprecedented transfer speeds, the standard is certainly…dated. But never fear, because SuperSpeed USB is here!...sort of.

When it comes to available hardware, SuperSpeed USB (the other name for 3.0), is starting to show signs of life. Of course, this means there needs to be USB 3.0-capable devices AND compliant ports on motherboards. Over the last few months, manufacturers have started hopping on the bandwagon.

For system builders, the motherboard or some appropriate add-in card are going to be the most important aspects of USB 3.0. Luckily, there are some boards on the market that can deliver. Two of Gigabyte’s P55 chipset-based boards, the UD4P and the UD6, come with two USB 3.0 ports baked right in with the I/O cluster. Intel might not support USB 3.0 right now, but an onboard uPD720200 host controller from NEC makes the 3.0 ports possible. Asus also has a USB 3.0-capable board in its P7P55D-E Pro.

If you want to add USB 3.0 to an existing system, then Asus has you covered with its U3S6 add-in card. At only $30, this PCI Express x4 card is a steal, and will add two USB 3.0 ports to virtually any system. And let’s not forget that the U3S6 also comes with two SATA 6Gbps ports, too. This is certainly a must-have card if you want to make your current system more future-friendly.

Now that your system is set up with USB 3.0, you'll need appropriate devices and peripherals to go with it, right? Unfortunately, there isn’t much in the way of tangible products to go with the new standard, but there are some on the horizon. Super Talent recently announced its new 320 MB/sec. RAIDDrive USB 3.0 flash drives, which will be available in December in 32, 64 and 128 GB sizes. Sure, one flash drive isn’t enough reason to upgrade, but with CES 2010 less than two months away, you can bet there will be a slew of new devices hitting the market come spring time.