Eee PC: The desktop version arrives August in the UK

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Friday, 20 June 2008 18:02

Opinion and Analysis

The specs are very familiar sounding, too.

Just like the Asus Eee PC 1000H notebook, there’s 1GB of DDR2 memory, 802.11 b/g/draft N, Wi-Fi, a memory card slot, a VGA port, three USB ports, a Gigabit Ethernet socket an 80GB of hard disk space – no SSDs used this time.

Of course there’s no screen to worry about, which should lower the cost, and there’s no indication of whether or not a keyboard or mouse will also be included, although if the Mac mini is anything to go by, why bother shipping them when they’re so inexpensive to buy separately?

It means the final cost of the Eee PC desktop edition by itself can be as low as Asus can possibly make it, which will always be welcome by consumers.

Beyond expandability via USB ports, there’s no mention as yet whether memory can be boosted to 2GB or more, but it would seem very likely that Asus would allow such a simple upgrade – if we hear differently we’ll certainly let you know.

In addition, there’s still no official price, but The Register expects it will cost much less than the Eee PC 901.

In Australia it will sell for AUD $649, and in the UK it’ll sell for £319 (which comes to AUD $661 at today’s exchange rate).

So we’re targeting a cost of something like AUD $499, but if Asus have really managed to keep the costs low, who knows – they could end up selling it for AUD $399, which would be $80 less than the Asus Eee PC 701 which now retails for AUD $479.

Does a 7-inch screen and tiny keyboard cost $80? Can Asus go even lower in price? These are questions that only Asus has the answers to at the moment.

So... expect a local announcement about the Eee desktop PC in the not too distant future, and expect the photos of a Eee desktop PC sitting next to a Nintendo Wii under the telly to start flooding the web in late August!