Asus Eee Box EB1501 gets unBoxed
By Paul Miller 
posted December 4th 2009 3:29AM
posted December 4th 2009 3:29AM
posted December 4th 2009 3:29AM
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Ion is simply the best thing to happen to the Atom platform.
And this guy looks pretty sweet.. Price?
@Slick
As a bonus, It comes with a Redbox rental or choice... :P
@Slick Both are better values than the Asus. Choices are good, and I’m sure some people are going to buy the Asus just because but I figured some people would like more insight: http://bit.ly/asus-eebox-eb1501-reaction
bow chicka wow wow
darn.
@questionexclamation
Dont you mean DAAAAM!! (live up to your name for once, man!)??
Oh... and I think I'll be grabbing one of these. I currently have an old lappy doing set top duty; this would make for a nice redeemer.
Why is it that no one else is making stuff like this? why are big pc makers (outside of Dell) not seeing people will get this option if they make it available? are they too tied to off the shelves parts to invest in stuff like this?
Are we seeing another example of the "beige" mentality?
@(Unverified)
They don't want to make it available. They don't want people buying or liking these. The profit margin is vert small, though not as small as netbooks.
Looks pretty sweet. Nice form factor and lots of inputs. Very curious how it handles high-end video. I love that it comes with a remote, though I could do without the wired keyboard and mouse.
I wonder if this plays nice with xbmc, I fancy a dedicated but tiny media centre for under the telly.
@mattglg
Totally works with xbmc.
@mattglg
Pretty much everything with an ion in it plays nicely with xbmc. Just be sure to run it on a linux distro (there is also a windows version of xbmc, but I believe that it does not take advantage of the gpu for).
Either way, I'm holding out to see what the ion 2 has to offer before I buy a new media streamer box. Prices should drop on ion 1 after the ion 2 is announced.
looks pretty good, I wonder what the price is?
I don't know why you're moaning about the lack of BlueRay, who's even using that? You got everything on the internet :))
Yeah I'd love to have Blu-ray drive as well. Then I could hook it up to my HDTV and watch HD-movies...
I have the dual core Acer Revo and the would still pick that over this one even without any optical drive. Personally, I would rather get a dedicated BlueRay box as these Media Centers still lack a little when it comes to user friendliness. I like the inclusion of a remote, but I am surprised that the keyboard and mouse are not wireless like the Revo. I still find myself using the keyboard quite a bit for web browsing and itunes.
No blue-ray, no point
That's one slim Wii.
Froogle puts the price at just under $500: http://www.google.com/products?q=Asus+Eee+Box+EB1501&scoring=p
French is such a soothing language... its like anti-Vietnamese.
I still prefer the Dell Zino for its faster available processor, similar to ION video performance w/ DTS out, 8GB of RAM for a mere $130, desktop harddrive (so I can put in a 2TB), and BluRay. Was up on slickdeals for cheap recently.
@(Unverified)
What is the noise level like on the Zino? I can't stand fan noise when watching films.
@Dmitry Its not a silent box, but is very quiet. You have to put your head up to it to hear it.
http://links.amd.com/ZinoHD2
@(Unverified)
Yeh, the zino does look good, but it's still a dell.
Très chique !
anyone know where to get a good nettop for cheap w/o the OS?
The ASrock 330 some sans OS.
The single core Revo is nearly half the cost of the ASrock 330 despite having an OS already on it.
The OS will get blown away either way so it's not a big deal either way...
I was planning on getting the ASRock ION 330 but it seems I can get this for the same price, I think I'll be getting one of these instead. That's my Christmas present sorted!
Anyone else notice the Blue-Ray Color buttons on the bottom of the remote control. Hopefully a future revision. If this had a blue-ray I would spend 500.00 on it to get the add functionality as a media center. Streaming all my content off my Dell XPS.
I can't believe so many people are complaining about lack of Blueray. It would suck using this thing compared to a regular Blueray deck or PS3, and isn't the point of the device. Being a cheap $$ is so much better. I do wish it had a TV tuner though, or that the Dell Zino would hurry up and add a tuner to their options.
Though with all the talk about the Pine*** netbooks releasing on Jan. 10/11th, I wonder how long till we will see some new nettops.
@Bamboo
I see where you are going with that, but if you want DVR like functions from a TV tuner, then you are also going to want a huge capacity hard drive in there, which limits you the 3.5 inch drives, and I'm pretty sure that case can't handle it. Unless you go with external storage, at which point, why bother with this tiny underpowered machine. Also, if you plan to do any on-the-fly compression on the DVR (analog cable), then this CPU won't help you. If you only want to get digital channels, then you don't need the CPU, since the streams are already encoded, but you are limitted to OTA or clear QAM, which a pretty small set of channels. But if that is what you want, pair this guy with an HD HomeRun tuner, and you are set.
I do appreciate the perfect illustration of how to remove a DVD from a slot loader without getting fingerprints on it.
"Honey, SEE, that's how you do it! Not with the two finger pinch!"
@(Unverified) Luckily I've finally gotten past that DVD handling obstacle with my girlfriend lol.
This is the perfect media companion for when I move out into an apartment with the GF. Small, sleek, cheap enough to afford.
@synrg023
"Small, sleek, cheap enough to afford."
Is that the Girl, or the Asus you refer to?
Wondering if this is powerful enough to replace completely my HP desktop, although it appears to be primarily designed to be a "stationary laptop"/secondary computer. I wonder if there will be an optional larger hard-drive?
i.e.:
HP A6000N
Processor AMD LIVE! AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor 4200+
• 2.2GHz, 512KB+512KB L2 Cach
NVIDIA nForce 430 Chipset
Internal hard disk drive 250GB
Hard disk controller Serial ATA hard drive
Hard disk drive speed (7200 rpm)
Optical drive type DVD writer
Optical drive speed SuperMulti DVD Burner
I can't believe how many people are complaining about the lack of a Blu-ray drive when they keep calling it Blue Ray O_o
An english description, plus a very light review. Supposedly, it handles 1080p nicely:
http://www.netbookreviews.net/asus/eb1501-hands-on/
Looks nice. But Acer Aspire Revo AR3610-U9012 is already available with same spec at New Egg. It's so popular they can't keep up with stock.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883103234
Blu ray is already outdated. In the next 5 to 10 years, physical media will be practically dead. It's all going to digital online content.
So Sony needs to milk that cash cow now while they can.
@(Unverified)
I second that, we need TVs shipped out with computers in them already, or at least already connected to the internet with some friendly XMBC type of GUI.
here's a review of the model so you don't have to translate the French http://newnetbookreviews.net/2009/asus-eee-box-eb1501-available-for-pre-order/