Asus Eee Box: an alternative to a laptop?

Pro

19 June 2009

Laptops may be the obvious choice if you need to deploy PCs in an office where space is at a premium, but they’re comparatively expensive and are not ergonomically suited for intensive use.

A better option is a compact desktop PC that can be used with a standard desktop monitor and keyboard, and the new Asus Eee Box B204 is about as compact as they come. The diminutive dimensions are largely the result of its Intel Atom processor, an energy-efficient chip that requires very little cooling, obviating the need for hefty heat sinks or large fans.

As a result, the B204 is not much larger than a DVD case and, when stood upright on the supplied plinth, takes up less space than a desk phone. Alternatively, the supplied VESA-compatible mount allows the Eee Box to be tucked away behind a display, where it takes up no desk space at all.

The Atom processor is designed more for frugal operation than brute performance, and draws only around 20W under load, which is very low for a desktop processor. The Eee Box B204 is supplied with Windows XP rather than Vista, but it easily runs Microsoft Office and other productivity applications.

Despite supporting Hyper-Threading, the processor does not cope well with running several applications at once, so the Eee Box B204 is very much a PC for less-demanding users. It’s small size also means there is no room for an internal optical drive, but there is a 160GB hard disk, and USB ports front and rear make it easy to connect external drives.

Unusually, a single gigabit Ethernet port is complemented by onboard 802.11n, which makes the Eee Box B204 ideal for use where there’s a power point but no nearby network cable. Indeed, it does not even need a power point as this model also packs a built-in battery. However, this lasts for around 20 minutes, but that’s enough to act as an emergency uninterruptible power supply, or to smooth out an erratic mains supply.

The battery also means that the Eee Box B204 can be unplugged and moved elsewhere without the need to shut down Windows – though many would debate the wisdom of moving a spinning hard drive.

The previous Eee Box B202 made do with barely adequate integrated graphics, but this new model has a ATI Radeon HD 3400 chip with an HDMI port. This does not do much for 3D graphics performance, but it does mean that the Eee Box B204 can be plugged into a HD Ready display for HD video playback. You’ll need an inexpensive HDMI-to-DVI converter for other displays, as there’s no other video output.

However, the ATI graphics chip is not quite enough to compensate for the comparatively puny Intel Atom processor and, while 720p video plays perfectly well, 1080p video is too jerky to be viable.

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