Pics of the EBox (Eee PC)
May 27th, 2008 by brianfayThough not much is known about it yet, pictures have emerged of the EBox, the desktop variant of the Eee PC. The Register, The Inquirer, and Slashdot all have similar pieces about it. The box is said to include 2GB of RAM, 160GB Hard Drive, and the Xandros OS that Eee users are already familiar with. Pricing is suggested at $200-$300 (US), but that may likely change.
May 27th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
Cool. I was about to spring for a mac mini for our kitchen area, but I thing I’ll wait for this instead.
May 27th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
$300?
LoL, bullshit!!
May 27th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
I would say that $300 is in line with what is described. After all, eMachines is selling a desktop for $299 list price. It has a fast processor, 1 GB RAM and an optical drive. Which means, it’s more computer than this EBox. And, they are already available everywhere. The problem is, they run Vista.
What “could” most interest me is how Asus will update the Easy software. Or, if they will even have Linux available. If it is running Windows, it’s just ordinary and of little interest to me. If it runs the same Linux as the Eee PC 701, and it’s not updated some, my first interest would be how the EeePCLinuxOS runs on it.
At the moment, my Eee PC 701 is still stock — and works just fine for my needs as is. But, that may be changing some soon. Now that I’m running PCLinuxOS with KDE on my desktop, I want KDE available on all of my computers.
May 28th, 2008 at 3:15 am
ooohhh… it’s preeeetty.
and thin!
May 28th, 2008 at 8:19 am
Beautiful, but the lack of an optical drive cuold be really annoying, especially for a desktop. And especially if it has some 160 GB of hard drive. Someone said bittorrent? Nah…
May 28th, 2008 at 8:33 am
>>Tyson Says:
>>$300?
>>LoL, bullshit!!
I built a box with similar hardware at the beginning of the year with just £180. New case, board, ram, processor, disks, drives, everything.
$300 is hugely possible these days with cheaper memory, drives and free software.
May 28th, 2008 at 8:57 am
For that price, it would be totally IT!!!
May 28th, 2008 at 11:28 am
Anybody catch this thing about the asus 1000 looks likes its the same deal as the 900 series except with a 10 inch screen
May 28th, 2008 at 11:57 am
This new ASUS Eee looks like a Nintendo Wii…
May 28th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Why isn’t it branded “Eee” rather than “Asus”?
May 28th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Great price point, I hope they do not change this (like they did with the laptops). The EEE releases are great as long as they remain cheaper than a “real” computer.
May 28th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
I was thinking that this is a great kitchen pc too. Now, if I get a network attached storage unit and stream music off to this and a set of speakers, I’ll be all set. I would love to get one of these things. Too cool.
May 28th, 2008 at 8:14 pm
EBox=$300, Mac Mini=$600.
Linux=Open, OSX=Closed
Those are the two things that decide things for me in a decision like this.
I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong with the Mac mini, but it’s just not for me.
May 28th, 2008 at 10:54 pm
While this might make a nice little access station for a quick email/internet/chat station, it would be nice to know the complete specs.
May 29th, 2008 at 3:43 am
IT is possbile. Definately possible. Interesting to see what happens.
May 29th, 2008 at 11:11 am
The price tag makes sense, those who cry bullshit are not paying attention to the market. The eee pc comes in at 399, with integrated speakers, keyboard, mouse, screen, and SSD hard disk. This desktop device is a cheaper, non-solid-state drive, no mouse, kb, screen, speakers.
Depending on how the video outputs, this device would be awesome for a media center device. MythTV and a wireless keyboard and you are set. Sweet, Asus, just sweet.
May 29th, 2008 at 11:54 am
The only caveat IMHO is the lack of a optical drive…. It would be a perfect machine for my office if it had an optical drive… even without the drive i´ll probably buy a couple (if the price tag is really only $300) to replace some aging desktops that don´t use drives… if it had an optical drive i would probably buy at least half a dozen as my office is needing an overhaul in the computer department…
Let´s waint and see the final specs… (and the final price tag)…
May 29th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
I’m thinking it might not make a bad low-powered home server for *cough*downloading linux distros*cough*
May 30th, 2008 at 3:39 am
Looks like I’ll be getting a xbox 360 external hd-dvd drive for $19.99
May 31st, 2008 at 9:13 pm
no dvd drive is ok (especialy for a linux desktop) as long has it’s easy to use the dvd drive of your main pc or mac over your network.
May 31st, 2008 at 10:06 pm
@Dinboff: It’s people like you who discourage innovation. Why do something that a) the macbook Air has already done, b) is next to useless, and c) is meant to be used on a laptop, not a desktop. it’s one thing to use another computers drive if you can have the laptop right near the desktop’s drive, but why in God’s name would you want to run between rooms to change discs? And if their in the same roon, why do you have one anyways?
June 1st, 2008 at 8:09 am
For the few occasion I might need a dvd drive, I don’t want to have to plug an external one, and I don’t want to buy one that I might never use.
I don’t want a dvd drive. I just want a simple solution in case I would need to read a dvd.
June 2nd, 2008 at 10:42 am
Well I think it’s a good idea, and why not use an eternal or get a DVD drive from another computer; I’ll end up with 300GB of space, a DVD drive, an 8type card reader and an internal wireless (if it doesn’t have it) I’m fed up of my desktop presently
Current Desktop Specs:
HardDrive 140GB (60GB and 80GB)
RAM: 256MB (the 2GB RAM chip for it is £995.47)
OS: Win2K (Boo! C’mon the linux)
DVD drive
8type Card Reader
No internal Wireless
Processor: 1.7 Ghz
Ebox, when done with my mods
HardDrive 300GB
RAM: 2GB (4 if it’s possible)
OS: Debian eeeXandrOS
DVD Drive
8Type card reader
internal wireless
Anyone have definate speed on the proscessor? over 1GHZ and I’m going for it
June 3rd, 2008 at 10:25 am
The specs and details for the EBox got out yesterday. Check it out here :
http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9957071-1.html
June 3rd, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Woohoo! even less work, just gotta add my DVD drive! No interchangeable Ram though… bit of a downside.
June 3rd, 2008 at 3:40 pm
I don’t know about the interchangeable RAM. AnandTech got hold of a pre-production version and it looks like it’s just standard DDR2 RAM. Have a look at the dissected eee Box :
http://www.anandtech.com/GalleryImage.aspx?id=2499
And since the hard drive looks to be removable, I think that’ll be one of the first things to be changed! A WinXP box for $300? Hell yeah I’ll buy it. Upgrade the RAM (maybe 2 GB?), change the SATA 2 hard drive into a 250 GB ….. And voila! Not only can it work as an el-cheapo media center, I can probably use it as well as a download machine. (Not that I would ever do that. Heaven forbid.)
Now, I just have to figure out how to hook the DVI video output to my TV …..
June 3rd, 2008 at 6:06 pm
Geez, those tech sites like Crave are useless.
Since this is a new Asus motherboard, the 3E box will have the Splashtop embedded Linux instant on option. (all Asus mobos and certain laptop series will have them)
You turn on the computer and you can use right away Firefox, Skype, Instant messaging, and PhotoViewing. Right… away.
I checked around and its confirmed.
Slow boot times is something we’ve been complaining for a long, long time and yet
it gets absolutely minimal coverage. Why?
I can tell tech loving friends about this or that piece of hardware and most will be interested only if they are in the market but when you tell me about instant boot, everyone perks up.
This little puppy will be great right next to the Wii.
June 3rd, 2008 at 6:44 pm
Bummer, I was really hoping for S-Video or Component outputs. If this thing supported TV-outs, it would make a perfect Media Center. Oh well, I guess my homebuilt machine will have to chug on powering my TV for now.
June 4th, 2008 at 1:02 am
Dude, I thought the exact same thing and I did some research. Since the output of this eee Box is probably VGA, then all you’ll need is a VGA to component viddeo transcoder. So, you’ll need a DVI to VGA adapter and then the transcoder.
Here’s where you get the adapter (but you can probably find it elsewhere) :
http://www.cablestogo.com/product.asp?cat%5Fid=2801&sku=26956
And here’s a transcoder :
http://www.digitalconnection.com/products/video/9a60.asp
Yeah, it’s $124 for the transcoder …. I know…. but it beats having to buy another big screen TV