If your going to use this for a PVR or any kind of video, I'd suggest passing on it. The CPU is sort of the low end of Atoms and at least get a dual core Atom for that stuff. I understand why netbooks dont have dual core atoms yet (power), but for a Atom PC, there's no reason except keeping the price down. You mine as well get a Aspire Revo on clearance @ Best Buy for $159 (in stores only if you can find them) with the same CPU.

As for gaming it has the same video card as my laptop. It can handle Team Fortress 2 on low settings. Don't expect anything wonderful. The card also overheats under heavy load so this is no where near a gaming computer.

I have one of these and I use it as an HTPC. I'm pretty happy with it.

It will ruin 720p without issue if you have it on ethernet, but 1080p will stutter pretty bad. If you're wireless G, 720p will also stutter pretty bad.

You may not want to upgrade it to Windows 7. There are driver issues. I'm still running it on the XP it came with.

Boxee runs really well and is highly recommended. I'm mostly using WMP Homecinema which will sometimes give gpu acceleration depending on format. I sure wish this had an nvidia GPU though.

If you get the 10.1 flash beta, it gives you some GPU based processing and so flash works more or less fine.

TestFreaks aggregate review is 9.3 out of 10:

TestFreaks Review

Going for $320 - $330 on NewEgg and Amazon:

NewEgg Product Detail

Amazon Product Detail

And best seems to be $250 elsewhere:

GoogleShopping

erick99 wrote:CNet has a nice review and a lot of specs. ASUS Eee Box EB1006

"We have not reviewed this product but here is CNET's buying advice on Desktops."

Video blog from TigerDirect

links at retrevo

get drivers and manual here (select OS first).

If what I read is correct, then Tech Report is saying that you can upgrade the RAM to 2 GB... and just about everything else can be upgraded, too.

Here's my situation, we've got a newer plasma set & it's 720p native & we're looking to get something like this or a small-form pc. My wife & I are big anime fans, before I'd confirm to buy, will this:

stream from Crunchyroll, The Anime Network, hulu & Anime News Network's streaming site & do it well?

it'd be fun just to surf the web with a 50 inch screen but I'd really like something that would do a great job with the sites mentioned above - is this the machine for the job??

m1sterb0b wrote:I kinda wanted one of these, but I think I'm going to wait until they have one of the eee pc 1000 series up again.

p.s. anyone else having issues with http://deals.woot.com ?

I'm trying to go to http://deals.woot.com/sellout to look at the razer mouse and it wont load, just gives me a blank screen!

[MOD: Reported Deals. Thanks for the heads-up.]

[m1sterb0b: Your welcome for the heads-up, it loads now but very slowly compared to woot.com and shirt.woot, maybe high traffic?]

[MOD: Don't think so. I woke the poor code slave up to look into it.]

/deals.woot.com works for me. But if you want a straight shot to sellout.woot.com try http://wtz.me/3

Mikein920 wrote:Here's my situation, we've got a newer plasma set & it's 720p native & we're looking to get something like this or a small-form pc. My wife & I are big anime fans, before I'd confirm to buy, will this:

stream from Crunchyroll, The Anime Network, hulu & Anime News Network's streaming site & do it well?

it'd be fun just to surf the web with a 50 inch screen but I'd really like something that would do a great job with the sites mentioned above - is this the machine for the job??

I'm thinking streaming as you desire ain't happenin' for the 50 incher, but you could most likely stream to a smaller monitor... I have had no problems streaming on an N270 processor with a smaller screen, but with a 2GB RAM upgrade.

Several posters have asked if this can be used to stream HD video (e.g. Hulu). I looked over several reviews, and the answer seems to be that it can, with a couple of caveats:

1) As noted elsewhere in this discussion, 720p yes, 1080p no.

2) make sure you have the latest version of flash installed.

Can anyone tell me if the HD, fans and the CPU be fine if I use it in a car and at a location with bad winter and hot summer? I'm thinking about a small touchscreen to use with this to serve as a headunit then get a line driver for amplifiers.

Someone posted this link the last time this PC came up:

http://lifehacker.com/5391308/build-a-silent-standalone-xbmc-media-center-on-the-cheap

I shall again re-apply some salve for Video Streaming Problems that all shall encounter at some point in their lives...

The single biggest appeal for me, for this particular item, is the graphics card. Yes, it's a few numbers back from the leading edge over at ATI right now, but it's a solid card, and will do more than what this little computer can handle.

Pass. Just picked up a Asrock ION 330 HT. Win7, ION 330 (dual-core), nVidia ION graphics chip, and about the size of a Wii. Delivered for under $400. Another option is the Zotac MAG.

Yes, I paid about twice as much at this Woot!, but if you tried to upgrade this item to Win7, add a remote, a bigger HD, and a faster CPU, dual core, and a vid chip that can actually handle 1080p, another 1GB of memory, then you're looking at pretty much what I paid for the Asrock.

Decent enough for a inexpensive nettop, but also XP will be end-of-lifed by MS later this year.

As someone who just was working on an Eee Box B202 for work I just wanted to mention you can take them to 2gig ram, its just not easy.

There are 2 screws on the bottom of the unit, and then you have to very carefully pry the plastic side free. There are several points where it clips in and they can be a bear to get at. The side fits very snugly and takes a bit of cautious handling to get it free without mushing the plastic edges.

At work we are using it to run the point of sale system, and the VESA mount will let us save more space to display product by moving from a tower to the itty bitty box on the back.

I see this being a nice computer for the kitchen, garage, etc. for someone who doesn't need an all powerful killer rig. (Surprise there are a lot of people who don't care if it can run the latest first person shooter at max resolution laglessly).

There is a robust group of people out there tinkering on these, and you can find a lot of detail and trial and error already taken care of for you.

Not for everyone, but a good price for a good computer.

Problems of the top of my head:

1. N270 chip - this has been out for ever and is tremendously underpowered. I wouldn't consider anything under an N280 for most any purpose

2. No nVidia iON - this makes it worthless for video. This thing will barely do 720p and don't even think about 1080.

Don't use for:

Media Center, Streaming of any kind

Use for:

File server/ backup target, torrent box, asterisk, non-processor intensive tasks, load linux if you like

joebrooks wrote:Will this run Boxee, Hulu, Netflix, Youtube, Quake, Farmville, SETI, iTunes, and Jib Jab videos all at the same time? Us Boxee-Hulu-Netflix-Youtube-Quake-Farmville-SETI-iTunes-Jib-Jab lovers must know!

Reviews from Amazon say it won't do Hulu, but it will do Youtube. All at the same time? You mean every window open to a video site? Hehe. Comon, it's only Atom 1.6 Ghz with a 256 MB GPU

http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-Eee-Box-1006-Nettop/product-reviews/B002JA76UQ/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1
My i7 2.67 with ATI 1GB would drag a little with all those windows open to video sites.
I never tried it, but I think I will, just to see if it could do it. I'll update you later

MrD3a7h wrote:From what I understand, the N4x0 and n2x0's have roughly the same performance. The 400's use significantly less power, so they are more suited to mobile machines.

How mobile do you need a netbook to be?... that was the initial providence for the Atom processors... to apply it to a static home media device on the low end of deliverable video and audio quality is like taking a roll-around in a bed of sharps... if you know what I mean...

Hmm, you know, I don't care about the things some of you are complaining about regarding this PC. We all obviously have other PCs that we use for gaming and other resource-intensive tasks. This is perfect as a secondary PC to use for Web browsing, productivity apps, music, and video (non-1080p.) My gaming PC alone heats up the room and even the whole upper floor in the summer; if I don't need to play a game it makes so much more sense to use a PC like this (or a laptop, etc.) with its 36W PSU. My desktop has a 700W PSU although according to my UPS it usually only uses half that, which is still 10x the maximum output of this Nettop's adapter. The real-world difference in heat output is tremendous.

Plus, I also plan to configure this as a headless unit, running a remote desktop connection. I haven't had a setup like that in a few years after the last one had a HDD failure and I never bothered to rebuild it. This Nettop is going to go right on the back of one of the 4 LCDs sitting on my desk right now, taking up no additional space. It even comes with the mounting hardware.

Seriously, some of you are being awfully critical about a sub-$200 PC. Sure it might make more sense to pay a little more and get a netbook if you don't already have one, but aside from that this is a decent setup as a secondary PC for most people and as a primary PC for many people. It may be a little slow as it runs Netbook hardware, but it should do all of the tasks listed above without much issue. Think about it: do your parents, or grandparents, or young children, really need to be able to do something this PC can't?

It's been a while since I bought anything from woot off, but I needed a music server and something to browse the web/irc on, so this works.

If people want a cheap media player, the hisense is pretty good for around 50 bucks, it throws about every format I use and does it well. Just no streaming, but that's not such a big deal for me.

Anyways, in for 1

If you want a cheap media player that is capable of doing 1080p, every format you can throw at it AND hulu, why not just wait for the boxeebox?

It launches at the end of this year, and will cost less than $200.

It also comes with a remote.

With full QWERTY.

Will this run Boxee, Hulu, Netflix, Youtube, Quake, Farmville, SETI, iTunes, and Jib Jab videos all at the same time? Us Boxee-Hulu-Netflix-Youtube-Quake-Farmville-SETI-iTunes-Jib-Jab lovers must know!

Reviews from Amazon say it won't do Hulu, but it will do Youtube. All at the same time? You mean every window open to a video site? Hehe. Comon, it's only Atom 1.6 Ghz with a 256 MB GPU

http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-Eee-Box-1006-Nettop/product-reviews/B002JA76UQ/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1
My i7 2.67 with ATI 1GB would drag a little with all those windows open to video sites.
I never tried it, but I think I will, just to see if it could do it. I'll update you later

Ok I have Hulu, Youtube, Boxee, Netflix, House (from thier site) iTunes, JibJab, The book of Eli on DVD and a downloaded movie (no comment on title) all on at the same time. And I'm sure it could run more except the noise from everything playing at once is bizarre.
Why would you want them all up at once?
You can only listen to one at a time.

Why does this even exist?

weister42 wrote:Can anyone tell me if the HD, fans and the CPU be fine if I use it in a car and at a location with bad winter and hot summer? I'm thinking about a small touchscreen to use with this to serve as a headunit then get a line driver for amplifiers.

Bad Winter and hot Summer, eh? Chicago?

Anyways, wow, I didn't even think about trying to use this as a carputer again. I had tried a couple years back, but the monitor in my car has only a composite input so the video interfacing was a problem, controlling the PC requires a media-center-friendly setup, and powering the PC often requires some changes because most small desktops don't have readily-available 12V PSUs (I was trying this all with an old HP ePC.) In many ways it's often simpler to use a cheap laptop as a carputer (you can buy mounting platforms for them that attach to the seat rails,) with the added benefit of it being fully portable. Plus, nowadays there are plenty of powerful portable media devices (e.g. Zune HD, iPod touch, Archos) that can handle all the things I wanted a carputer for in the first place, while interfacing with my multimedia head unit at the same time.

As I type this all out I'm coming to the conclusion that I won't be buying a second one of these for use in the car (not that I have any more room in my car even for this,) but it's not a half-bad idea if the rest of your car is setup to receive something like this. (It does even stand a chance at fitting in a car like my Miata if I moved some of the stuff out from behind the seats.)

cowboyesfan wrote:Any idea if this will run OS/X?

...are you kidding me?

goansongo wrote:Why does this even exist?

It's Netbook hardware in a desktop form factor. It actually takes up less space than a Netbook, and it's marketed towards someone whose needs are met by the hardware of a netbook but prefer a full-sized peripheral setup (i.e. monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers.) Basically, low performance, but low price. Some of us find it useful.

How does this compare in performance to something a little larger like the Asrock Ion 330-ht? The specs seem similar but this is so much less expensive.

Thanks!

Jeff

brucedoesbms wrote:I'm thinking streaming as you desire ain't happenin' for the 50 incher, but you could most likely stream to a smaller monitor... I have had no problems streaming on an N270 processor with a smaller screen, but with a 2GB RAM upgrade.

ohhhh, so it's the SIZE of the monitor, not the resolution that matters. and here i had been thinking the opposite all these years! silly me!

atomizer wrote:It's Netbook hardware in a desktop form factor. It actually takes up less space than a Netbook, and it's marketed towards someone whose needs are met by the hardware of a netbook but prefer a full-sized peripheral setup (i.e. monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers.) Basically, low performance, but low price. Some of us find it useful.

But why would you ever want to use a computer that is made with "netbook" hardware. I really don't see how this would take up less space than a netbook. Most netbooks are small to begin with. Adding in a monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers would take up more space than a netbook.

I suppose it is cheap since it's under $200, but I don't see why you can't just buy a netbook with HDMI for under $200. Am I missing something though? Like can this do something different from a netbook? I see it has a video card... So what do you do with this?

Looks like you can run android on this if you're so inclined.

http://www.android-x86.org/

It's probably more for tinkering than serious use right now, but the project goal is promising:

"To provide complete solution for Android on Eee PC platforms first and then to provide solutions for common x86 platforms as well."

OSs like Meego, Chrome OS or Jolicloud will make a product like this interesting for tinkerers for some time to come.

oelschlegel wrote:ohhhh, so it's the SIZE of the monitor, not the resolution that matters. and here i had been thinking the opposite all these years! silly me!

Size begets resolution.

reggaemyelitis wrote:You can't have your shortcake, and eat it , too...

Indeed .. let them eat shortcake ...

chefjef wrote:How does this compare in performance to something a little larger like the Asrock Ion 330-ht? The specs seem similar but this is so much less expensive.

Thanks!

Jeff

This has a slower, single-core CPU and a lesser graphics chipset. I'd like an ION or ION 2 setup with the Atom 330 dual-core CPU like the Asrock you're looking at, but as you noticed, the price difference is still substantial. This would be a good starting point; if you like the whole Nettop experience you can upgrade later on.

goansongo wrote:But why would you ever want to use a computer that is made with "netbook" hardware. I really don't see how this would take up less space than a netbook. Most netbooks are small to begin with. Adding in a monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers would take up more space than a netbook.

I suppose it is cheap since it's under $200, but I don't see why you can't just buy a netbook with HDMI for under $200. Am I missing something though? Like can this do something different from a netbook? I see it has a video card... So what do you do with this?

It's not so much that you specifically want to use Netbook hardware, it's that it's cheap to begin with and if the level of performance it provides works for your applications, then that means you save money (and space, and heat output, etc.)

The overall setup is bigger than a complete Netbook, but you have to assume a user already has I/O devices and so adding this Nettop requires very little space, and you might be replacing an older, much larger desktop anyways. Plus, it includes a VESA mount as previously discussed so it can sit right on the back of an LCD panel and take up no additional space on the desk itself.

The problem is finding a Netbook (regardless of HDMI) for under $200. It's not that they don't exist, particularly refurbished, but as is the case with laptops they cost more than their desktop counterparts. There are more expensive items to go with a Netbook/laptop such as the display, battery, keyboard/touchpad, etc. so desktops normally cost less for the same hardware (and desktops usually offer better performance than their mobile counterparts.) Your monitor & input devices did cost you money, but that's a sunk cost and doesn't add to the purchase of a new system if you reuse your peripherals.

As I mentioned in a previous post, if you don't already have a Netbook then the extra $100 or so makes it worth it. I already have a Netbook from a previous WOOT.

This can't do anything different than any other Netbook, really, but it can do all of the things I mentioned in my first post in this thread, namely all of the casual tasks that don't include heavy gaming or 1080P output. You're probably browsing the Web right now, posting in this forum, listening to music, and maybe typing in a word processor; a Netbook or Nettop can do all of that, much more efficiently than your current desktop.

Plus, if you just need a low-performing system for desktop use, while a laptop or netbook would work nicely, they don't fit in as convenient a location as the back of a monitor like this Nettop will.

This can play most 1080p content just fine, if it can use the Radeon's UVD2 decoder chip.

However, most 1080p that you get from the web is flash based, which is still very CPU intensive. So hulu, cbs.com etc, will all give some playback issues, as the little Atom processor isn't optimized for heavy lifting (and because flash isn't fully optimized to offload to the GPU).

Now that we have that out of the way, 1080p that you stream from the web isn't worth not buying this machine. If you *really* care about 1080p, then you'd *really* care that web streaming 1080p is carp at best, and you're not really getting anything close to full high defintion. A 720p stream upconverted via your TV's upscaler will likely be near the same as a 1080p flash stream.

In otherwords, the people complaining about the lack of 1080p support are being silly, because without using a bluray (or other comparable source), you're not getting 1080p anyway, so why worry about it.

mahumphrey wrote:

2. No nVidia iON - this makes it worthless for video. This thing will barely do 720p and don't even think about 1080.

Don't use for:

Media Center, Streaming of any kind

This is completely wrong.

The ION 2(recall that the original ION was the 9400m in the macbook and it can't handle 1080p flash either...), has been designed to help the Intel Atom processor decode video.

The ATI Radeon Mobility 4530 does the *exact* same thing.

The difference has nothing to do with the graphics cards, but with the paired CPU. Since Flash is *still* cpu intensive despite having support for GPU's, it falls back to the CPU to do much of the work. Since ION2's come paired with stronger CPU's, it's natural that the Atom/ION2 combo performs better than an older Atom/ATI content.

But flash web video isn't the only kind of video available.

If you plan using this as a hulu box (assuming hulu gets more 1080p content), or to stream any other flash based 1080p, this box will struggle. But if you're playing bluray rips (obtained legally of course), then the radeon will handle the 1080p decoding.

Obviously flash video performance is important, simply due to the ease of use, and the amount of content available, but lets not kid ourselves. 720p flash is not real 720p, and neither is 1080p flash video. If you care about 1080p, and getting the best quality for your TV, then you wouldn't be watching streaming content to begin with.

So media center use: okay.

Streaming HD flash: no.

roebeet wrote:Radeon and Linux (if you were thinking of upgrading) do not mix well. Windows 7 would probably be a better fit, or Home Server.

I've heard that's changed some in recent years. The open source driver's been getting better and better, and AMD is somewhat better than ATI was with the closed source driver.

Anyone know if the HDMI out is capable of transmitting an analog signal (i.e. VGA/component), given an adapter of course?

If it can, this might be the perfect Internet box for my grandmother.