EMTEC dips toes into nettop market with Ion-based G Box

We're used to seeing nettops from the likes of Asus and Acer, but EMTEC's the newcomer in this field and let's see what we're working with. At about one inch thick by TechDigest's estimates, the G Box (working title) certainly compact, and we definitely give points to it running NVIDIA's Ion platform, Windows XP, at least six USB ports, and a 160GB hard drive. Unfortunately, there's no HDMI port -- that's coming in a later model -- and at £179 ($293 US), we'd be hard pressed to pick this over the HDMI-equipped AspireRevo, but we'll await judgment until we can try this thing out for ourselves. In the meantime, hit up the read link for a brief video hands-on.

[Stephen @ Jul 3rd 2009 1:44AM]

Wow, throw in HDMI, and I might have my first HTPC :D

[3Djesus @ Jul 3rd 2009 1:55AM]

What's the point of throwin' in the ION if no HDMI, appearently I must be stupid or totally missing something here. Thats like a car without a speedometer....or wheels.

[xXJackXx @ Jul 3rd 2009 2:03AM]

Actually its more like having a Turbo car without a larger exhaust. You still get the power but not the full potential of it.

[3Djesus @ Jul 3rd 2009 2:05AM]

BTW,...in the READ link......WTF is up w/the Wayne video? Am I out of touch with reality?

[3Djesus @ Jul 3rd 2009 2:07AM]

@xXJackXx
well put, toooo many Guiness' for me tonite.

[Stephen @ Jul 3rd 2009 3:16AM]

I think that's like having a 400hp car, but only 10inch wheels... you got the power, just no way to get it out :/

[Mel @ Jul 4th 2009 3:38AM]

seems like they ran out of space for plugs after they put on the good old vga plug. Or they're trying to steampunk us with last century looks.

[iFargle @ Jul 3rd 2009 2:03AM]

So EEErie...

[Oli D @ Jul 3rd 2009 2:09AM]

Wow thats a shitty looking pc...

Plus points for compactness though.

[3Djesus @ Jul 3rd 2009 2:34AM]

Agreed, can't argue with the looks department....whats with this netbook on a stand shit. On a side note,VGA on this thing???? and probably a single core Atom CPU. At this point in the game if you ain't stuffin' it in a dimestore paperback you might as well call it quits, as for the CPU, if it isn't a 330, don't waste your time....anything less is uncivilized.....maybe an AMD Nano, but I doubt that too.

[Oli D @ Jul 3rd 2009 2:44AM]

I literally cannot think of a single use for this.

Office - doesnt need GeForce 9400 so could be cheaper
Home - Needs more umph CPUwise
HTPC - Needs more storage, HDMI, tuner card

[3Djesus @ Jul 3rd 2009 2:50AM]

Single use is easy- commenting on Engadget.

[Oli D @ Jul 3rd 2009 2:53AM]

Makes me regret buying a £400 Mac Mini to do that job...

[dsteve303 @ Jul 3rd 2009 2:56AM]

what is that strange symbol before 400

[ethana2 @ Jul 3rd 2009 3:44AM]

£ is the pound symbol, british currency.

[Oli D @ Jul 3rd 2009 6:38AM]

Its a perfectly logical currency system, theres 4 farthings in a penny, 12 pennies in a shilling, and 20 shillings in a pound.

[sam @ Jul 3rd 2009 5:59PM]

@oli: you forgot to give the value of groats!

And yes, that computer is absolutely astonishingly ugly.

I can't see any possible reason to buy this - there are millions of nettops out there, many of which look quite nice, and all of which look a lot less ugly than this. Most of them are from companies you've actually heard of and some have Ion too (if for some reason you want it). Not really the way to make a great first impression for a 'new' brand, is it?

[lawyer bird @ Jul 3rd 2009 2:22AM]

ba-dum-tcsche!

uh..

[ethana2 @ Jul 3rd 2009 3:47AM]

Eww, Windows XP.

[Excelsium @ Jul 3rd 2009 6:33AM]

call me when it does all 1080p videos without breaking a sweat.

[Piz @ Jul 3rd 2009 9:59AM]

It can do hardware acceleration of video

[Oli D @ Jul 3rd 2009 6:39AM]

How does Ion fare in ubuntu?

I heard that the drivers were not going to be provided by Zotac/Nvidia/Intel

[adrian @ Jul 3rd 2009 12:47PM]

As a compact computer for simple tasks it's good enough. There's quite a few people who will see it that way and may buy it.

[iphonerulez @ Jul 3rd 2009 4:07PM]

These things really are gay. Who are they gearing this type of computer towards. Certainly not Americans. Where the hell am I gonna put my four 500GB drives? 160GB in a home desktop computer is really a little tight considering a decent laptop has a 320 to 500GB drive.

These people are really going off the deep end when it comes to little crap-box computers. Maybe they should try selling this type of computer to corporations to sit on secretaries and drones desks. It might have a use in the office environment, but I sure don't want it on my desk. Looks like a child's toy.

On one hand the industry is selling high-end graphics cards that take up two slots and could melt a full-size plastic computer case and on the other hand they're pushing these little sh!t-boxes that would probably cough on a youtube video.

[skybluesleet @ Jul 4th 2009 3:28AM]

You seem to forget that most computer users don't need anything more then this. It's cheap, browses the internet, checks email. There's most people's requirements for a computer right there.

[Daniel @ Jul 4th 2009 10:11AM]

I've actually seen these running (it did have HDMI though...), and the idea is the idea is that most of the work is done on the GPU using CUDA. It can play full HD Blu-ray rips without dropping any frames and looking very nice using the 9400, and can even encode video reasonably quickly!

Also, it runs well under Windows 7 (you can surf the internet, word process etc..), but more GPGPU apps are needed to take full advantage of the hardware, but more should come.

[molecule-eye @ Jul 5th 2009 8:25AM]

Not sure why anyone might think it would be useful for businesses. I can see some people using this to hook up to an external LCD to watch movies, but it would be a lot more useful with an HDMI port. Pick up a nice-sized external hdd and this thing makes the perfect htpc.

[GaryZ @ Jul 7th 2009 9:03PM]

VGA instead of HDMI? yuck...