Customer Reviews

Asus EeeBox EBXB202-BLK-X0081 Desktop PC (1.6 GHz Intel Atom N270 Processor, 1 GB RAM, 160 GB Hard Drive, XP Home) Black

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I purchased this Asus Eee PC as an experiment, replacing my bulky Media Center PC (aka Home Theater PC or HTPC), and I have been extremely satisfied so far. The unit is small (1/10th the footprint of my HTPC), quiet, very responsive, and makes an attractive (if only diminutive) addition to my entertainment center.

I use the unit for web browsing with a wireless keyboard and mouse/remote (with accelerometer), watching online video, Amazon UnBox videos, music playback (multiple formats), video playback (multiple formats), and playing DVDs. So far I have no complaints, from me (the household geek) or my family (internet junkies one-and-all).

Pros: Affordable, small, quick boot, attractive design, high quality graphics, low power consumption, very quiet (nearly silent), and it can be mounted to the back of a display (using the VESA mount).

Cons: None noted

Summary: This very well design unit is not suited for all applications, but when you need a small PC, with diminished demands, this is an excellent solution at a very affordable price. I added a USB DVD/CD RW to my tools, using only when needed, and it works flawlessly.

I bought this to use as a house monitor, VOIP phone connection point (for a magicjack), and local email/internet system. It does all that and more.
It's quiet, stable, and handles all the functions I wanted. IN addition I got a built in access point. The wireless can be configured to work as an access point (for other systems to connect via WIFI), and it automatically becomes a router. So I connected this to the DSL dry-loop, turned on the WIFI AP, setup the magicjack, camera, motion detector software, and battery backup. It now runs 24/7 in my other house.
All this and it's tucked away on the back of the LCD, out of sight, and doesn't make a sound. Excellent package.

Cons - minor pick is the need for more USB ports. It has 4 but you loose 2 for the keyboard and mouse. Advise you get a powered USB hub with 7 ports to go with this. If this had a faster processor (as I understand the successor has !!) I'd have used it as DVR as well.. next go round ;{)

One point - get the latest drivers from both ASUS and the wireless vendor to enable all the features.

As much as I regret it, I have no choice but to return this machine because of its unacceptable online performance. But, let me first provide a brief account of my experience with the EeeBox... Desktop PC. For the sake of complete disclosure, my unit came in 'white'.

Setup:
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Very easy. The machine comes in a nice little box that hosts its body, the USB keyboard, USB mouse, desktop stand, mounting bracket if it is to be attached to a monitor, Wi-Fi antenna, DVI to VGA adapter, power adapter, manuals, disks, etc. Everything is very tightly and securely packed.

For the physical setup you may need a flat and a Phillips screwdriver if the PC is to be mounted on the back of a monitor. I didn't even notice until the Asus came that certain monitors allow for the installation of a mounting bracket on their back - apparently this is a standard - and the little Asus can be made to sit there - 4 screws to attach the bracket to the monitor and the bracket itself has ONE thumb screw that's sufficient to attach the PC's body to it.

There is only a DVI interface for the video but the supplied DVI-VGA adapter takes care of those monitors that do not support DVI.

The Wi-Fi antenna is easily attached (screwed in) to the body. To my surprise, my white box came with a black antenna but, since I decided to keep it hanging on the back of the monitor, the color mismatch did not bother me.

Once the keyboard and mouse are plugged in and the machine is powered up Windows XP installs itself. It's as easy as providing the user's name.

The manual explains exactly how to set up the Wi-Fi and/or the wired network connection.

The entire setup, physical and software can be completed in less than one hour and it presents no major challenges.

A BIG plus about the setup is that practically there is ZERO bloatware. No AOL, Norton Whatever or software that's set to expire in 30 days appears to be running. In fact, the only thing that you see on the desktop, once the XP installs is the Explorer icon, the trash can and, I believe, the Adobe reader.

Features and performance:
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On the PC's sides there are 4 USB ports of which 2 are taken by the keyboard and the mouse, an Ethernet port, DVI port and, I believe, a memory stick reader - didn't check exactly which standards are supported.

The optical mouse, while small, appears to be working well. The small keyboard is not 'typist quality' but it's usable. Of course, keyboards and mice are easy to replace.

The machine, as expected, is very quiet and it stays cool while running.

There are no speakers but audio in and out ports are present to allow for headphones/speakers and a microphone or some other audio source.

There is no CD/DVD/BD drive but one could be easily attached via the USB.

As far as running installed sapplications, performance appears to be good. However, any application that involved an on-line component had trouble running. My Wi-Fi router is providing for several computers, a PS3, an online printer and a PSP prior to EeeBox's arrival and performance was always adequate for each unit. The EeeBox, while properly configured - and the Wi-Fi monitor did show near-100% signal strength - was barely communicating with the outside world. It was consistently slow while its other fellow machines on the network were as happy and as fast as ever. It took me a couple of hours and several tries simply to install Google's Chrome browser. The Asus 'upgrades' site seemed to take its time to the extent that, several hours later, a 10MB upgrade received about one third of the data over HTTP and FTP failed altogether. The Adobe Flash player installed itself in about 20 minutes that that's how long it took for a Java update. Amazon's site was slow and so were Yahoo, CNN, Google News. All of the above was within the context of other of our computers whizzing along without any problems whatsoever. I did not test a 'wired' connection.

Conclusion and recommendation:
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When ordering this machine I was aware of its lacking a CD/DVD drive and speakers and its CPU, graphics and memory limitations and I accepted those limitations. But, as I stated from the beginning, I am returning it because of its unacceptably poor online performance over Wi-Fi. It is possible that there was something not quite right with this particular box so everyone should be aware that I am evaluating ONE specific machine here, the one that I received.

It is possible that the performance is better over a wired connection but I did not test that.

Had this machine performed better online, it would have been an easy 5-stars for design, ease of setup and functionality.

I purchased this product a couple of months ago to use as a wall mounted rss information display driving an old flat panel. It has been rock solid without any problem for the wireless connection or need to reboot.

It is virtually soundless and incredibly small. The only detraction is the price point is a bit high. If the price comes down, I could use more of these for standalone specialized applications.

I use this more as a home theater component then a desktop pc. If used as a computer, it would be a very basic one. It comes loaded with Windows XP, IE and Adobe Reader.

I had problems with connecting devises to my home theater using a Linksys router so I thought I would give this a try. I have it placed behind my LCD and it is quiet enough to run 24/7 (I will find out next electric bill if the low energy usage claims are accurate). I love all the convenience this unit provides but please note that it requires a wireless keyboard and mouse for the pc options to be used when connected to a home theater.

I can now listen to downloaded music through my home theater system (Onkyo) instead of my pc speakers. Love the difference! I also love being able to watch downloaded videos on my LCD (with HDMI cables). The best part? This EeeBox doesn't care about the source of the videos like other devices (Apple TV for one).

The Eeebox does stick sometimes which is annoying. Only 4 USB ports are provided and they go fast. Although port hubs are inexpensive and an easy fix, I don't like adding yet another device. Hopefully this will be addressed in later versions. I am thinking of trading this in for a Cisco-Valet Plus Wireless Hotspot which doesn't provide the same options but will allow me use the wireless devices I already own at a lower cost.

Perfect computer for everyday use with small footprint and minimal energy consumption. I can leave it on while it downloads all my media. I now own two of these and though it is not a high performance PC I can do all the tasks I want to do such as web browsing, email, and document creation. It is also powerful enough for my multimedia needs such as movie watching, picture viewing and playing my music. I sync my iPhone with iTunes as well as convert video files. I am more than happy with my Asus EEE PCs. I would not use this computer to play Grand Theft Auto or other system resource demanding games.

Bought this to replace the wife's Dell desktop PC, and couldn't be more pleased with the results. She mainly runs email, MS Office, and flash games from BigFish and PopCap, so it seemed that a nettop was the way to go. The unit is silent, fast, great set of connections front and back. It looks nice sitting on her desk even.

Her games run without any lag, flash games and video run beautifully, even running a couple of apps simultaneously doesn't seem to slow this processor down. The unit draws very little power, connects to various wifi signals with ease, and runs a 22" monitor without flicker. Since buying this I've been looking around for other machines to replace.

The supplied keyboard and mouse are on the small size, especially the keyboard with its narrower than usual key spacing.

Pros: ease of installation, tiny footprint, speed, connections well placed, low power.

Cons: small keyboard.

I purchased this to use as a HTPC. I Installed Windows Media Center (2005 - not Vista) and it installed without any problems. I have read about how the PC slows down when any anti-virus is installed -but, so far I have tried 2 - Norton Internet Security and Microsoft Security Essentials - have NOT noticed any performance degradation. For playing media files - I have K-lite codecs installed and all the movies/music plays nicely without any buffering. I have not tried 1080p video yet - but, 720p videos plays nicely without hogging the CPU. So far it has 'hung' few times - but that might be problems with Windows MCE rather than the h/w. The only time I see it a bit sluggish is - when it tries to show the thumbnails of the videos and musics files/folders - takes a while to show all the thumbnails if there are a lot of files. The 5.1 channel audio also plays nice in my Onkyo Receiver.
Overall - happy with the PC and can't beat the price.

I use the EeeBox with an LCD TV/Monitor for my home office. The size is perfect and as an XP (and anti-Vista) fan, it is a comfortable device to work with. While not advertised, the 160G hard drive is really two 80G drives (C and D), with the latter designated as a data drive. Memory is more than adequate for internet access and basic office requirements such as word processing, spread sheets and the like. This is not a gamer device nor is it intended to be. Installation was simple and my older wireless keyboard and mouse (Logitech) worked like a charm. I also have a separate HP DVD/CD drive that works flawlessly through the USB port (4 included). For the price, size, and features, this is a winner.

I was able to install ubuntu 10.04 lucid using the live cd iso and unetbootin. to create a bootable sdcard. Everything works fine with the default install, including wireless, ethernet , sound and video. 1 GB RAM is more than enough for running ubuntu.

The keyboard and mouse included are lowest quality. not comparable to HP or Dell keyboards. The mouse is sold as laptop travel size in the market.

One annoying feature(!) I have realized in asus mainboards is that they do not cut the power to usb port when you turn the pc off, the support response is that this is a feature to charge your i**d etc without the need of a wall charger..

The pc is very quiet and the fan is inaudible even though running boinc to crunch grid computing projects..

I would give it a 5 star if it came with a better keyboard and mouse.