ASUS have stepped up their nettop game with the arrival of the ASUS EeeBox EB1501. The first of the company’s range to include an integrated optical drive, the EB1501 also includes Intel’s Atom 330 dual-core CPU and NVIDIA’s 1080p-capable Ion graphics chipset, turning the neatly-balanced nettop into a pretty impressive media center PC.
It was only a couple days ago that we outed the upcoming releases from ASUS, which included the Eee Box, where we informed you that the upcoming tech would come stock with a NVIDIA ION GPU. And now, according to an official Eee PC website, that seems to be the exact case. There are some other things that match up really well with that original post, so keep reading to see what this little box has in store for you.
ASUS’ long-awaited Eee Keyboard could land as early as October, according to DigiTimes’ “industry sources”, with pricing set to hover in the $400-500 category. It will follow on from a refresh of several of ASUS’ Eee-breakaway lines, including a new Eee Top all-in-one and an Eee Box nettop, both of which will use NVIDIA’s Ion GeForce 9300M GPU.
Earlier in the month we heard that Atom N270 based netbooks and nettops would be unlikely candidates for inclusion in the Windows 7 Upgrade Program, and that’s looking to indeed be the case. ASUS have announced details of their program, including which models will be eligible, and only two of the company’s sprawling Eee PC netbook line are included: the 1101HA and the 1005HA.
Updated with comment from ASUS after the cut
As you might expect, Computex brings with it not only official news but plenty of rumor, and the first netbook whispers suggest that the segment is growing increasingly competitive. ASUS – when they’re not slapping Qualcomm Snapdragon chipsets into Eee PCs – are tipped to be evaluating NVIDIA’s Ion GPU for future products, according to industry sources, while they also suggest that the Eee Box B1006 nettop spotted on Friday will use Ion when it launches in Q3 2009.
Acer netbook rumors after the cut
Two new ASUS Eee Box nettops are in the works, according to listings on the Energy Star website. The ASUS Eee Box EB1002 and Eee Box EB1006 both use Intel’s Atom 1.66GHz processor, with the former having integrated graphics and the latter an unspecified discrete video card with 128MB of memory.
From the very start, ASUS’ Eee Box nettop caught the eye as a potential media PC, and the company themselves threw their hat into the ring with the launch of the Eee Box B206. Swapping the DVI output for an HDTV-friendly HDMI, and slotting an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3450 GPU with 256MB of its own DDR2 RAM in instead of the integrated graphics, the B206 promises high-definition playback above its humble Atom roots.
The Register have been taking a look at the nettop, and in some ways the B206 does deliver. Standard definition video runs with no problems, and DivX 720p files in Windows Media Player were also smooth; however, the B206 showed itself to be particularly picky about codecs.
The problem is that not all media player apps support DirectX Video Acceleration (DXVA), the technology which lets the Radeon HD 3450 GPU get its teeth into the video. Without that, it’s up to the Atom N270 1.6GHz chip to keep things ticking over, and we already know that Intel’s CPU struggles with high-resolution media.
After the Eee Box 206 from last week, ASUS have confirmed their latest HD-capable nettop, the ASUS Eee Box B208. Outfitted with Intel’s 1.6GHz dual-core Atom 330 processor and 1GB of RAM, the Eee Box B208 also gets ATI Radeon HD 4350 graphics with 256MB of video memory and an HDMI output.
ASUS have officially announced the Eee Box 206 nettop, first spotted back in December 2008, which adds a new AMD ATI Radeon HD 3450 GPU and an HDMI port to the original Eee Box design. The ASUS Eee Box 206 also comes with a remote control and DVI-D output adapter, with the company positioning it as the ideal eco-friendly accompaniment to your HDTV.
Hot on the heels of the Celeron 220-based Eee Box B203, ASUS have quietly added a further Celeron-based nettop. The B201 presumably slots in as the new entry-level model in the range, and packs both the Celeron 220 processor together with a standard 16GB SSD. A 160GB SATA-II hard-drive is an option, as is upgrading RAM from the standard 512MB to 1GB or 2GB.
JP
