Asus Eee Box Review

Compact desktops are catching the fancy of manufacturer’s off-late and Asus Eee Box is a compact desktop which comes on the heels of Dell Studio Hybrid but at a much lower price tag. It is not a desktop replacement as it isn’t as powerful as one but it is great to use as a second PC or if you are short on space to keep a PC.

Asus Eee Box specifications :

• Dimensions : 8.25″ x 4″ x 9.25″
• Processor : Intel Atom, 1600MHz
• RAM : 1GB DDR2 SDRAM
• Motherboard : Intel 945GM
• Graphics Card : Intel GMA 950, 32MB shared memory
• Hard Drive : 80GB 5400rpm
• Card Reader : 5-in-1 card reader
• Networking : Ethernet, WiFi
• OS : Microsoft Windows XP Home
• Approx. price : $350

Apart from the compact CPU, Asus has also bundled a wireless keyboard and mouse, leaving you to buy your own set of display. Also you would notice that there isn’t any optical drive which might be a shocker to some. Asus claims that it can play 720p videos but they did appear to play a bit choppily.

Compacting the CPU does take its toll on performance and it offers significantly lower performance that full blown desktops in its range. But to compensate for it, the Eee Box has Draft N wireless adapter built-in which is a luxury to desktops right now. The hard disk is a mere 80GB but it can be popped out and swapped with a higher capacity hard drive.

It also has a start-up layer software called ExpressGate which enables us to use some of its features without loading Windows. These tasks are most related to internet such as browsing, making Skype calls etc. The Eee box has 4 USB port apart from a card reader which is able to read almost all major card formats. DVI port has also been provided to hook up a display. The Eee Box draws its power from a small power brick that comes bundled with it. There is no audible noise from the system, making it really quite.

Pros :

• Small and compact design
• Built-in Draft N wireless adapter
• ExpressGate software very handy
• Swappable hard disk
• Low price

Cons :

• Slow performer
• No optical drive
• No dedicated graphics card

Final Thoughts

The Asus Eee Box is a low priced compact desktop that offers basic functionality and performance is below average. It comes with Draft N wireless router which strongly supports it and a swappable hard disk is also a plus point. No optical drive or a dedicated graphics card will disappoint many. If you need a second PC without the need of performance or are on a low budget and have space issues, this seems a good buy.

My Rating : 3.5/5