ASUS rolls out HD-minded Eee Box 206
By Donald Melanson 
posted March 4th 2009 12:59PM
posted March 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.
No HDMI port...
that was supposed to be a reply to Patriks7...
If this was a TRULY HTPC-minded Eee PC, then it would need an RF receiver for a remote, and it would also need the ability to output the HD audio sources as well (like DTS-HD and Dolby's Tru-HD)
The 204 & 206 comes with a remote
http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/26/asus-offers-up-branded-keyboard-mouse-combo-remote-for-eee-bo/
Its odd, my EEE Box 202 can play HD fine, 720 perfectly and 1080 if I turn off software deinterlacing (but the videos I am watching were already deinterlaced when encoded, so its not like I am loosing anything.)
I have the B202 and it can only play 720p with stereo sound. If you add 5.1 sound it gets completely out of sync.It is running on Windows 7. As I received it as a gift I plan of replacing it with either the eeeBox 206 or the new Mac Mini.
If they really wanted this thing to be useful, they'd put the Atom 330 in these things. The 330 is the dual-core 1.6GHz processor, and is far better suited for media playback than the single-code 270.
Not putting the N330 in netbooks makes a certain amount of space for power requirements (although arguably being able to turn off the second core on battery would make that moot). But not putting it in netbooks makes no sense. The price difference between the 270 and the 330 is minesclue. The difference in desktop Atom motherboards with the 270 vs 330 is at most $20 Canadian at local stores.
I agree.
Time for them to step it up, in every way.
And I bet it still only has 2 USB ports in the back, eh?!?
*sigh*
I agree.
Time for them to step it up, in every way.
And I bet it still only has 2 USB ports in the back, eh?!?
*sigh*
I agree.
Time for them to step it up, in every way.
And I bet it still only has 2 USB ports in the back, eh?!?
Love all the people who claim they can build a HTPC for XXXX dollars. Great...in what form factor? a giant box that's 4 by 8 by 15 inches or something around 5 by 5 by 3? I'm betting giant box. And how are you getting the OS so cheap? That right there adds $100 to the price immediately. So now you've got $300-400 or so dollars to put together everything else in a form factor that just doesn't exist in home-made HTPCs.
ATI graphics? That’s sucks! That means it’s a windows only platform because ATI’s Linux drives suck hard core and because it is not VDPAU compatible, that also mean no HD video hardware acceleration in Linux, tisk tisk ASUS for screwing the LINUX community again, why didn’t you just deploy an ION platform?
the price is a bit far fetched,basically its an nc10 with the screen battery and keyboard removed with a 20 quid gpu thrown in.£199 max
I have a B206.
It's a good box. The only (big) problem Ihave, is that "boot-up on power ON" is impossible.
The bios don't have this option.
The if you moubnt the eee in vesa in back of your TV and don't would to always have it ON, you must each time go to the back of your TV to boot-up the B206.
You can't boot up whe you turn on AC Power.