ASUS rolls out HD-minded Eee Box 206
By Donald Melanson 
posted Mar 4th 2009 12:59PM
posted Mar 4th 2009 12:59PM
ASUS first got official with its upgraded Eee Box 206 way back in December, but the nettop is just now finally rolling out into availability (in the UK, at least), and bringing with it a number of more HD-friendly features. That, of course, includes an HDMI port, and some ATI Radeon HD 3450 graphics to ensure that your HD videos play without a hitch, though serious gaming is certainly still a bit of a stretch. Otherwise, you can expect the usual 1.6GHz Atom N270 processor, 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive (plus 10GB of ASUS' Eee online storage service), a fairly generous complement of ports (including DVI) and, of particular note, a total power consumption of just 20 watts. Still no official word on a release 'round here, it seems, but folks in the UK can pick this one up now in their choice of black or white for £310, or just under $440.
I hope that ridiculous looking stand is removeable.
Doesn't seem unattractive to me, I don't see why it's ridiculous.
It is detachable. You can also mount it to the back of your monitor using the VESA mounts if you don't want to see it at all
Not unattractive?
It looks like something to hold towels in the bathroom
@Trex - Sure it does - and those things to hold towels in the bathroom look perfectly fine, too.
Quite a nice design overall, I like the bubbles on the side. Holding it up in the air like that probably helps with airflow too?
Yes, it is removable. You even get VESA to hang it on the back of your monitor.
20 Watts? My interest is piqued, I may just grab one and make make my current PC into a pure gaming rig...
I was just about to say the same thing except I remember reading it was going to be around $240 not $440... I wonder if this also has an IR-port for remotes?
That is the UK price, take the customary 30-50% price hike off and you'll get the US price
That's fairly expensive for what it is. You can get a net book for the same price with around the same specs...minus the video card of course.
...and the HDMI port, both of which are the reason you would buy this instead of a netbook.
Lack of dual-core Atom ftL.
Or you could throw down $100 more and build yourself a real HTPC with a c2d, the components you want and room for expansion and upgradeability.
@nzo
Sure you could build out your own HTPC, but I haven't seen too many cases you can build out as cool, sleek or tiny as the Eee and still stay in that budget you're proposing.
I say the Eee is a good bargain for a htpc.
I have been keeping an eye out for something like this. But I don't think it is fast enough to Run Vista Home Premium with Media Center and HD OTA MPEG2 (ATSC)? Even if it is, no ABC or FOX HD Streaming?
Yea, I'm wanting something like this with a cablecard. I will go strictly OTA until that happens.
It may not run vista well but it will probably run Windows 7 just fine. It will most certainly run 1080p video since all the video is handled by the ATI 2400HD. All HD web video should play fine on this box.
actually it will do those things quite easily* OTA MPEG2 HDTV is nothing for these things.
* 2GB of RAM makes it easy. Are you using a MCE now?
All you need is Linux Mint. You can comfortably run a torrent client while watching HD video...
I'm waiting for the 204, which has even better specs. This sucker blows the mini out of the water. I want a pair of them to use in my home as sage/hulu/boxee/netflix boxes. All purpose HD player for the home, that's what it's geared to be, not a gaming box. I love it.
The only difference between the 204 and the 206 (afair) is the 204 have bluetooth and built-in battery (UPS kinda thing).
I got tired of waiting on the product here in the USA and picked up a ASUS essentio CS5111 from Best Buy for $439. The machine has all the same features and is alot more powerful. It's also super quite and works great as a High Definition Capable (1080p) Home Theater PC. Too bad Asus is taking forever to release this product here in the US. It's using internal components that have been out for quite some time so I'm not sure why it takes so long to get it to market. Even though the CS5111 was a better deal for me, I think this Eee Box 206 is going to be a pretty hot product among home theater enthusiasts. My family recently dropped cable and went pure internet based video streams on all televisions in the house. So far so good but it's only been a week.....
Just out of curiosity, how well does that CS5111 handle HD video processing with only the Intel X3500 gfx?
I was thinking of getting one of these for Slingbox so I can watch tv in a bedroom.
You can find the normal ones on Newegg for $300 or so. That will still be able to play SD tv very well since I tested it on a Asus Eee pc netbook!
Crapeee
Asus need to learn some marketing skills and limit the amount of products they are producing. If they put to many items on sale the attitude will be that it is "just another ASUS computer". This is were apple excels. They limit their products to a few really recognizable machines that are known for quality. Asus need to tone their production down or they will devalue their brand...
I was just going to say...
It's called the Eee Box 206 because it's the 206th electronic device they've slapped the Eee brand on. :)
This is a perfect product. It addresses my only gripes with the older eeebox, this one will make it into my life and it will live out it's days velcro stuck to the back of my LCD TV ( as long as the memory and hard drive are upgradable ). I have been looking for a super small, elegant, low power, and cheap solution to get any remaining media that Tversity won't play out to my living room. Media Center Extenders are worthless, and I don;t want a full size or even a small pc in the mix, this thing will blend in perfectly and not take up any floor space at all.
100% agreed.
This is exactly what im looking for also. Small, quiet, decent HTPC.
Read this: http://www.hdtvlounge.net/news/asus-eee-box-b204-b206/
Umm, it has VESA mounts, so you can velcro if you want, but...?
I love my Eee Box B202, and wish it had the HDMI port and graphics this new model has. I wonder if consumption isn't to exceed 20 watts or if that's the idle rating? My B202 runs about 15-16w at idle and I think I've only ever seen it peak at 19w.
The memory and the Hard Drive are upgradeable on this box.
It would be a killer HTPC if it can play 1080p H.264, use the VESA mount for TVs and come in black for less than $300. :D
Seems like a good home media PC to me. By the way what is the "official" abreviation for these types of PCs? HMPC? (Home Media Personal Computer?) MCPC? (Media Center Personal Computer?)
Generally it's HTPC (Home Theater PC), but I usually associate HTPCs with a device that has optical media.
Then again I'm an old fart, so maybe this "all digital" idea will catch on. :)
I wonder why they didn't go with 1080p Nvidia Ion platform for $300...
Ion platform doesn't come out until the summer. Plus, I'm pretty sure than it's not as powerful as a Radion HD 3450. The appeal of the Ion chipset is that everything is in the same chip, thus using less power (very important in mobile platforms).
Open the gates and let the reviews flood in! I want to see how this thing handles Boxee with linux or some Netflix streaming.
It's HTPC (Home Theater Personal Computers)
wtf, i could build a c2d-based htpc for 440 bucks.
And it would use just a bit more than 20 watts.
Is there one of these that does SDTV-out? Like, S-Video or something similar? I haven't gone HDTV yet, and I'd want something I can use now, which is still gonna work when I do go HDTV.
Buy some adapters!
Yes, the EEEBox 202. Newegg sells them.
Why aren't they using the dual core atom?
No, idea... they should though.
price point
Eee box 204 + Winki and i'm on it. :)
So the Mini is only about 200$ more, yet it has a much better processor and graphics, yet people say it's overpriced.
Good one.
Don't forget that it also has a DVD drive.
The new mini is a lot more expensive than that. This one seems to cost 440 USD which is 350 EUR. Mini costs 600 EUR which is 760 USD. So infact this thing costs 250 EUR or 320 USD less than mini, not 200 USD like you just said. eee ftw! I'll get one of these for sure. Perfect for my needs.