Asustek Eee Box heads for Blighty

COMING CLOSE to the original specs Asus officially confirmed to The INQ some weeks back, although now with an ever-so slightly different name change, the Eee Box is doubly-officially announced for the UK. Only this time around it pitches up installed with Microsoft Windows XP Home and not Linux first off, as seen in previous form.

Asus is hoping for a little revolution in desktop computing with its space-saving, power efficient computing in the new box of tricks – according to the press blurb

It’s coming on from the Eee PC ultra portable laptop, only now for users who require a low-power computer with a minimal footprint aimed at replacing today’s bulky and boring PCs. Nearly too much marketing bumf there, but we’re sure you get where they’re going with this.

Eee Box

The Eee Box is powered by an Intel Atom N270 (1.6 GHz) running on an Intel 945GSE Northbridge and an ICH7M Southbridge with 1GB of RAM. It arrives with an 80GB HDD, with a sleek and slim design close to the size of a paperback book and doesn't look much like a Wii after all. Compared to a full-sized desktop 'puter its energy-efficient performance can reduce power consumption by up to 90 per cent - according to Asus. More if you never turn it on.

It ships with the Express Gate Linux-lite interface seen in their latest motherboards, all for a seven second boot to Internet access and IM/Skype – over either the built-in 802.11n or 10/100/1000 LAN net connections.

Eee Box

Asus is trying to keep the noise down too, by running in at a quiet (26db) with comfortable computing in mind by using a unique heat dissipation module with the AI fan.

We’ve had confirmation from that it’s expected to hit the streets in August, although no prices have yet been set unfortunately.

Asus dumped the Eee PC brand-name for the Eee Box but might have run with the RM naming instead. MiniBook has a much better ring to it for an ultra low-cost mobile PC, if you ask us. In fact, even the very category naming of these devices is suspect – it should be ULCML, ultra low-cost mobile laptop. µ