Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Wednesday, 13 August 2008 08:30
Opinion and Analysis
Page 2 of 3
To start with, the Eee Box will only come with Windows XP. Now, given that Asus offers its Eee notebook PCs with a fantastic Xandros Linux installation, I clearly wanted to know if we’d ever see the Eee Box come with Linux, too.
So I had a chat with Joshua Carr, the Asus Australia product manager for Desktops, LCDs and the Digital Home, which includes the Asus Eee Box.
He told me that a Linux version is indeed coming, either at the end of September, or the first week of October, so for people that prefer Linux pre-installed, you’ll need to wait a bit longer, although nothing stops users from installing any version of Linux they want onto the initial Windows-equipped Eee Boxes.
While the Windows version comes with an 80GB hard drive, the Linux version could come with an SSD instead, as with the Eee Notebooks, but Carr couldn’t confirm absolutely at this stage – clearly decisions on Linux specs are still being made.
That said, the price point should be the same as the XP version, so if it comes with an SSD, it might mean something like a 40GB model like with the Eee notebooks, and given that SSDs are still more expensive that hard drives.
When I asked Carr this question he wasn’t able to confirm as yet, but promised he’d be able to divulge more details on that in the future.
Also, as with Henry Ford and his original Model T Ford, the Asus Eee Box will initially only come to Australia in one colour: black.
There are other colours planned, as the factory will be making versions in white, lime green and a cherry red colour, but given the initial worldwide demand from Asus divisions in countries worldwide, black is the only colour that is currently available to keep things simple.
However if consumer demand is as high as expected, other colours will certainly be shipped to Australia.
So, the price of the Eee Box will be AUD $429, is currently available through computer resellers and in 3-4 weeks will be sold through “selected retailers” with the keyboard and mouse inclusions.
The specs are Windows XP home, a 1.6Ghz Intel Atom chip with Intel chipset, 1GB of DDR2 memory, an 80GB hard drive at 5400RPM, a 5-way card reader (SD/SDHC/MS/MS Pro/MMC), 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, 10/100/1000 LAN, 4x USB ports (2x front and 2x back), 3.5mm headphone socket and 3.5mm microphone socket on the front, a 3.5mm speaker socket on the back with S/PDIF, a DVI socket (with DVI to VGA adapter included) and a 2 year warranty.
Only “1 litre” in size and “about the size of a paperback novel”, weighing only 1KG and having a 90% smaller power consumption that regular desktop PCs, the Eee Box is a green, small, computin’ machine!
Please read on to page 3 for details on the green credentials of the Eee Box and much more...
