ASUS EeeBox PC B208 with discrete graphics, HDMI-out in June?
By Thomas Ricker 
posted Apr 23rd 2009 8:59AM
posted Apr 23rd 2009 8:59AM
[Thanks, Thomas C.]
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So, does it do 1080?
I've got the TV, the N wireless, the NAS and the content. All I need/want now is the Atom HTPC
I just want to know what happened to the 204 and 206??? I've been hearing about those forever and I can't wait to get one of them (they play 1080p), but they're no where to be found.. and already there is talk of a 208??!!!
If it's a Radeon 4530... it should.
Revo is better, because it doesn't have a crappy logo.
Wasn't Revo like $300-ish? Not $500-ish?
Or was it 300 euro-ish?
The Aspire Revo starts at £179.99 (US $267) for Linux / 1GB Ram, the next model up is £249 for Vista Home Premium / 2GB RAM.
http://www.netbooknow.net/acer/aspire-revo-release/
What exactly is stopping me from building my own PC around same price with HDMI-out and e-SATA? with better and powerful graphics combo?
nothing. nothing at all.
Nothing is stopping you, but it would be hard to get something as compact as this would be. eSATA is really needed on this, and is what would make me choose the Revo over it.
Finding an attractive mini-ITX case to stick it.
Pretty won't do me the justice of getting the most performance out of my slip, sleek, and pretty case. What does is the performance and getting the most out of it.
Yeah, for about $500 you could easily build something with a much better CPU. I actually built a computer a few weeks ago for $400 including shipping and taxes that is faster than this. But this would still be interesting to me because of the form factor, just not $500 worth interesting. I think I could build an HTPC in an SFF case for about $500 that would blow this away.
Understanding how hard it is to buy Atom CPU and Nvidia Ion platform and a proper PSU and a cooling solution for Atom and Ion parts.
I guess.
I thought they would come in much cheaper, around $329 or so. At $500 you can get a small enough PC to use as an HTPC.
Not a single company has figured out how to make a "nettop" that will actually sell, very pathetic.
I agree about the price. From the early info, it seemed they would be aiming for a
I wish Asus could have thought of something better than 'Eee', and what the hell were they thinking when they branded it with that god-awful logo?! And BUBBLES?! Are you freaking kidding me? I think I'd rather go Acer.
Isn't Vista's default screen saver 'bubbles' ?
whats wrong with you!!! everybody loves bubbles!
bubbles make me the world a better place :D
ya man, bubbles. reminds me of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dasab33h1nQ#t=1m37s
sorry,
working link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0AeSzvVT3c
If the Revo offers the Atom 330 as an option before this launches, Asus is in trouble.
what this do have which u will strungle with building ur own itx computer is how small and brilliently backed in these are. most itx cases will have twice the height(or depth seeing as this thing is on its side) Also mini-itx boards arent that common with wifi. (yes there are some out there. but its just another thing u need to fit into the case)
The eeexbox B208 is already available in sweden, im writing this on one atm, for $500 your actually getting quite alot. a IR remote, a small bluetooth keyboard and a evenly small bluetooth mouse, and a shitload of cables, like HDMI-HDMI, HDMI-DVI etc. its quite a complete package. However for those looking to run XBMC on it look away, the crappy radeon drivers will never be implemented, im waiting for the ION based Acer to hit shelfs for that.
You're running XBMC in Linux I'm assuming? You can use XBMC in Windows with ATI's Radeon drivers and I'm sure it would work great.
There isn't hardware acceleration on windows XBMC, so it will still be bad. ATI is lagging behind acceleration on the Linux OS so Nvidia is the choice at the moment with beta releases every other week.
I kind of want one to throw in my bedroom and hook up to my HDTV for some media streaming and casual web surfing. Maybe I'll rig up a Wii Remote to it for easy cursor control from the bed.
I wanted this for the same reason, but unfortunately XBMC only does GPU acceleration of video with nVidia GPUs (and that's not even out yet.) Too bad.
I think you are confusing the B206 with the B208. The B206 has been available in Sweden for some time now, yes. The B206 only has a single core Atom CPU, but with HT so it shows up as two logical cores in Windows taskmanager etc. I have had one at home mounted behind the TV for quite some time now. I don't think the keyboard and mice is Bluetooth either, but they do have good range.
Agreed. ATI in this thing is a deal breaker, just because of the damned linux joke-of-drivers that ATI provides. Nvidia is much better in that regard. I'd wait for the ION platform with dual core ATOM and with Asus. I have had a soft spot for asus because they're the ones who actually pioneered the netbook/nettop segment. Common ASUS, ION with Atom 330 isn't too much to ask for. Please make it quick.
Oh I see now, you mean XBMC's internal player. I use ZoomPlayer Pro which supports both nVidia and ATI's GPU drivers for video decoding. And it's easy to setup XBMC to launch your vids fullscreen/etc. in ZoomPlayer.
I didn't like how the internal player would continue to play the movie in the background anyways when you went to the main menu. I thought it was annoying.
The acer revo is already out in the german t-online shop but only with the 230 and 2gb ram option...
it costs only 300 euros (400$).
http://ndevil.com/de/231041/acer-aspire-revo-3600-fur-299-euro-kaufen/
How is this better than the Western Digital box that sells for ~ $100ish that has HDMI etc? Sure, it might not be a fully fledged computer, but if all you want is an easy way to watch movies on your TV, that makes more sense - plus you have leftover cash!
I'd want to use it as a HTPC, adding a TV tuner, to watch/record live TV.
The WD box is only for watching video...no TV functionality.
Also, no internet connection with the WD box, unless you hack it up. With this, you'd be able to run any windows program you want:
-XBMC
-Boxee
-SabNZBD for newsgroups
-uTorrent
-etc
I was dying to get one of the new ion nettops or nettops with a gfx card that can do HD decoding so i can do 1080p video, until I saw that that the processor is too weak for XMBC and Boxee. A single core atom is not powerful enough for flash, so count Hulu out of the question. I was stoked for a new htpc to replace my popcorn hour, but looks like i'll be waiting for a dual core nettop. I just don't feel like building my own HTPC, and a quiet small form factor atom HTPC would be ideal, with its lower power consumption and warranty.
Just give us the damn dual core atom!!!
Um..."ASUS' little HD nettop with DUAL-CORE Atom 330 processor"
So dual core atom vs the Ion platform, humm tough decisions. The Acer Net top is on my want list, so i can connect it to my tv . I cant wait
Really more like Radeon HD 4530 vs GeForce 9500M.
ATI has a better HDMI w/ Audio Out track record than nVidia so it looks promising. I'd still build my own though.
edit: 9400M, somehow I put 9500 sorry.
Wait long enough (probably not long at all) and the 330 will couple itself with Ion. Patience.
I rather have this over the Revo.. This has the dual core which might help with the HULU flash problem that the test Revo is having.. The Revo can't do HD flash, since Flash cant offload the flash to the video card.. So I would rather have the slightly beefier CPU.
Asus and Acer are taking a step in the right direction here, but these net-tops make perfect HTPCs if they have an internal:
Slim DVD-RW
DVB-T Tuner
Do it in black and you have youself a customer.
I wouldn't mind a tradeoff on a slightly thicker case to accomodate these specs.
Also a ATI 4530 will easily beat a NV 9400.
I've seen it in black http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2009/03/02/asus_eee_box_206/
"Also a ATI 4530 will easily beat a NV 9400."
Not when you consider ATI's abysmal driver support on Linux. Nvidia users enjoy hardware acceleration in xbmc while ATI is still playing with its self.
I hope this sells for less than MSRP.. because $500 is way too close to mac mini territory
And, unlike the Mac Mini, if I'm reading correctly, this has no optical drive, so you'd probably still want to have another piece of hardware for playing DVDs or Blu-Ray discs, no?
my thoughts exactly
Random question, you can put Windows and Linux onto a Mac Mini, right?
@Jaroslav:
It does have an optical drive.
@Liam if you look at the Picture on the back of the B208, it has a tv.tuner built in!
http://ndevil.com/de/231048/asus-eeebox-b208-der-revo-konkurrent-ab-juni/
Who needs a dvdplayer nowaday, it just breaks after about 2 years. usbsticks and streaming is the way to go!
That's not a TV tuner. I believe its the connector for the external 802.11n antenna. At least thats what previous models looked like.
Sorry, it's not.
That's the antenna connection for the 802.11
Oh crap, I just realised, my post was intended for darkpros.
OH CRAP, I just realised YOUR post said the exact same thing!
To Nick:
SIFL N OLLY, FTW.
(Well, Chester, mostly).
As for the topic: If only they'd come out with some better quality versions of that show...so I can run it off such a questionably priced purchase as an EEEBox to my own HT setup...
I have been following the EEE box b208 vs. Acer Ion box vs. Mac mini - comparisons for a while I finally just pulled the trigger on the Mini a 2 weeks ago. This is what sold me the mini was $150 more expensive than the projected models I was looking at (I added the extra 1gb of ram so it would unlock the extra vram for the 9400m). With that 150 I also received an internal slot loading dvd drive (loud as hell but whatever) a 2.0ghz core2duo instead of an atom. Nicer aluminum casing (debatable, esp if you want to attach it to the back of your tv which is not an option afaik with the mini). OSX is native, I am sure there will be hackintosh ions and eeeboxes everywhere but there is something to being able to just stick in the discs and go or update without having to look at forums first for me at least. With OSX comes Boxee, Plex or XBMC (sure boxee does support windows now but i have it on both and OSX still feels like the favored son, also boxee/plex doesn't do gpu acceleration right now so no 1080p there). More usb ports = more externals. Those were my deciding factors if the atom machines were fully equipped for around 300-350 i would feel differently but 500 is too much for an atom desktop for me right now i would rather have a mini
Ps the mini displayport to hdmi adapter works great
hey mike, does the mini displayport to hdmi provide audio too?
want it, and a slot for tv tuner
Mike: my thoughts exactly. It is too much of a hassle and frustration to make it work (HD video) through GPU hardware acceleration in the eeeBoxes. I have been following various fora on that and people with B206/B204 have real troubles making it to work.For the time being a have a B202 (given as a gift) which imposingly plays 720P. Well, it does not. It can play about 1 in 5 videos through a mixture of codecs and obsolete media players. For the same reasons I am going for the Mac mini (entry level). At least it has the processor power to play anything through any player/front end without relying on GPU
jazzy_james: unfortunately the mini dp to hdmi adapter does not pass audio. audio out is in the form of a regular stereo out jack which also functions as an optical out jack with an adapter(cheap on monoprice). this is a disadvantage for people who just want to use one cable direct to their tv, but it doesn't matter for people who use a receiver since they'd be doing that anyway I guess.