Why You Can Trust CNET Asus Eee Box review: Asus Eee Box
Asus Eee Box
We completely understand the appeal of low-cost, small-scale laptops, but we're puzzled by the level of the interest in similarly conceived desktops. We expressed our bewilderment in our recent Dell Studio Hybrid review, and we find the new Asus Eee Box similarly confounding. For $350, Asus' little PC gives you significantly less performance and capability than standard budget desktops in the same price range. And because it still needs peripherals, we reject most claims to significant space-savings. Aesthetes, the environmentally superconscious, and those in cramped living situations may find something to like. We'll even admit that Asus includes a few interesting features, but its negatives far outweigh its positives. A true budget desktop or a low-end laptop would be a much better solution for most of the problems systems like this purport to solve.
Asus Eee Box
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
The idea of the Eee Box is similar to Asus's successful Eee PC laptop. For a low price, the Eee Box will provide you with a tiny, basic Windows XP-based computer for Web browsing, word processing, and other general computing activities. Its size, affordability, and pared-down configuration lend the Eee Box an air of approachability and ease of use, making the case for the Eee Box as a desktop for novices or those in need of a second PC.
On its included support stand, the Asus Eee Box measures 8.25 inches tall by 4 inches wide by 9.25 inches deep. Unscrew the base and lay the unit down flat and its dimensions change to 1.75 inches tall by 7 inches wide by 8.75 inches deep. In either configuration, the Eee Box is roughly as small as the Apple Mac Mini in overall volume. Laying flat, the Mac Mini is taller, but it has a smaller footprint.
Unlike the Mac Mini, according to Asus, the Eee Box comes with a wireless mouse and keyboard. The input devices were not ready in time for this review, so we can't comment on them. Even if they're only half-baked, we applaud Asus for including them in the box. Wireless peripherals help preserve the sparse design these small PCs strive for. Of course, you also have to connect the unit to the wall for power, as well as to some kind of display. This configuration takes up much less space than a typical midtower PC, but if your goal is saving space, we find laptops, even cheap ones such as Asus' Eee PC, far more flexible because of their portability and their freedom from peripheral hardware.
If you're not looking for space flexibility, you might instead be interested in the Eee Box as a small media PC. It would certainly disappear next to the rest of your living room hardware because of its small size. While the Eee Box lacks an optical drive of any kind, we found that it handled 480p, DVD-quality video easily. Asus suggested that it would also play 720p video, but in our testing, we found it unwatchably choppy. You could use the Eee Box to play audio, photo slide shows, or lower-resolution video, but a cheap laptop can do all of those things and more. If you're serious about buying a small computer as a home theater PC, you'll need a higher-end system such as the Dell Studio Hybrid.
| Asus Eee Box | eMachines T5274 | |
| Price | $350 | $400 |
| CPU | 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 | 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E2180 |
| Memory | 1GB 533MHz DDR2 SDRAM | 2GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM |
| Graphics | 32MB (shared) Intel GMA 950 integrated chip | 64MB (shared) Intel GMA 950 integrated chip |
| Hard drives | 80GB, 5,400rpm | 320GB 7,200rpm |
| Optical drive | NA | dual-layer DVD burner |
| Networking | Gigabit Ethernet, Draft N wireless | Gigabit Ethernet |
| Operating system | Windows XP Home SP3 | Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (32-bit) |
We'll also risk belaboring the obvious here and point out that the Eee Box is embarrassingly underfeatured compared with budget midtower desktops in the same price range. The recent eMachines T5274 costs just $50 more and its CPU, hard drive, and memory all outclass the Eee Box in a significant way. Throw in the fact that you can upgrade the eMachines with a graphics card and other peripherals, and the gap between the two is plain. Perhaps this disparity doesn't need spelling out. After all, it's long been understood that small form factor desktops and all-in-ones typically require trade-offs to achieve their unique designs. With such a wide chasm in performance and capability between the Eee Box and its competition, it seems worth noting again.
To hammer the point even further, look at how the Eee Box performed on our benchmarks.
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
 | Rendering multiple CPUs | | Rendering a single CPU |
If it's not clear, we recommend against the Eee Box. Still, it does a few things that some of you may appreciate. The first is that Asus includes a Draft N wireless adapter, which gives you a lot of range and provides ample bandwidth for transferring or streaming files. With only an 80GB hard drive, chances are you won't be storing a lot of data on this system. You can also pop the hard drive out from the bottom of the unit for upgrading or servicing, another useful feature that's not common in these tiny PCs.
We also like the Eee Box's start-up software layer, called ExpressGate. Approximately 7 seconds after you power the system, ExpressGate presents you with a pre-Windows operating system with applications for browsing the Web, instant messaging, looking at photos, and making VoIP calls with Skype. The ExpressGate screen gives you a button to load Windows XP if you need to go into the more robust operating system, and if you do nothing once ExpressGate loads, it will move on directly to XP as well. This software is so handy we'd like to see it on every PC.
We mentioned the removable hard drive bay, which is probably the most interesting hardware feature of the Eee Box. The removable stand comes off easily enough with a single screw. You get plenty of external inputs as well, with four USB jacks between the front and the back, a 4-in-1 media card reader and headphone and mic jacks on the front, and DVI, digital audio, Gigabit Ethernet, and Wi-Fi antenna inputs on the back. The small external power brick that comes with this system is a testament to its low power consumption, common to most small PCs. And also like those others, the Eee Box is almost completely silent. On start-up, the fans spin audibly for a second or two, but that's the only noise we heard from it.
Asus backs the Eee Box with a one-year parts-and-labor warranty, which is average for the industry. You'll also find the usual array of help online, including driver downloads, a FAQ, and a user forum; however, there is no remote support capability. Asus has phone support, but it's not toll-free, and it's only open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. PT.
Find out more about how we test desktop systems.
System configurations:
Asus Eee Box
Windows XP Home SP3; 1.6Ghz Intel Atom N270; 1GB DDR2 SDRAM; 32MB (shared) Intel GMA 950 integrated graphics chip; 80GB, 5,400rpm Seagate hard drive.
Dell Studio Hybrid
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1; 2.1GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T8100; 2GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 128MB (shared) Intel GMA X3100 integrated graphics chip; 250GB 5,400rpm Samsung hard drive.
eMachines T5274
Windows Vista Home Premium; 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E2180; 2GB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 64MB shared Intel GMA 950 integrated graphics chip; 320GB 7,200rpm Western Digital hard drive.
Gateway GT5692
Windows Vista Home Premium; 2.1GHz AMD Phenom X3 8450; 4GB DDR2 SDRAM; 256MB (shared) ATI Radeon HD 3200 integrated graphics chip; 500GB 7,200rpm Western Digital hard drive.
ZT Affinity 7221Xa
Windows Vista Home Premium; 2.1GHz AMD Phenom X4 8450; 4GB DDR2 SDRAM; 256MB (shared) ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics chip; 500GB 7,200rpm Seagate hard drive.