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Have you been looking for a media centre that does not take up too much space, but still want a computer that can provide the full array of entertainment including Full HD (1080p)? Do you require a computer that does not use too much power? If yes, this EeeBox PC might be what you are looking for, with a power consumption of only 40W. This Asus is an exciting little product ready to take over your home, and we take a closer look at the wealth of possibilities it brings.

Product kindly lent by Asus.com

The power consumption is about 80% lower than the average PC. As for connectivity, there are plenty of ports available. It is passively cooled, meaning it is completely silent.

The product was kindly lent to us by www.asus.com

The reviewed configuration goes by the name EeeBox PC EB1012 High Definition.

Construction

There are two models of the EeeBox PC EB1012, each in a different colour. These are shown below:

Configuration

Colour:
Modern black or white with Eee motif

Size:
222mm (length)x178mm(height)x26.9mm(width)

Weight:
1.1 kg

OS:
Windows 7 Home Premium

CPU:
Intel® Atom™ N330 Dual Core 1.60GHz

RAM:
2 x So-DIMM Slots, DDR2-800 2GB (up to 4GB)

Storage:
SATA 2.5'' 250GB HDD

Chipset:
Asus EB1012 with NVIDIA® ION™

GPU:
NVIDIA® ION™

Wireless connectivity:
802.11b/g/n @2.4GHz

LAN:
10/100/1000 Mbps

Card reader:
SD/SDHC/MS/MS Pro/MMC

I/O ports at the front:
Card Reader x 1(SD/SDHC/MS/MS Pro/MMC)

USB x3

Headphone x 1

MIC x 1

I/O ports at the rear:
Wi-Fi antenna x1 (built-in)

DC-in

USB 2.0 x2

Gigabit LAN x1

HDMI out x1

D-Sub

Audio out (S/PDIF out) jack x1

I/O ports at the top:
USB 2.0 x1

eSATA x 1

Keyboard and mouse:
Asus keyboard and mouse, wired.

Accessories:
Power adapter(40W)
Stylish stand in polished metal and plastic.
VESA Mount x 1 (kit to mount the EeeBox behind a display)
Quick Start Guide
Warranty Card

Price:
Around £275

Software

When you start up the computer for the very first time and log on with username and password, you will arrive the following screen:



As can be seen, you can activate a “free trial” of Trend internet security that lasts for 60 days. In general, I am of the opinion that once you have bought a product, a “free trial” anything is undesired. It basically means you have a problem when it runs out, in this case in 60 days. Granted it is just an offer, and you can of course always uninstall it if you prefer some other Internet security.

As you might have noticed in the previous screenshot, there is a taskbar at the top of the screen which looks like the following when you click it:



There are four programs to choose between: Eee@ Vibe, Asus Easy Update, Asus Update(bios update) and Eee Manager.

Eee@ Vibe:

First we will take a look at Eee@ Vibe, shown in this screenshot:



Eee@ Vibe is a multimedia program. With it you can choose between Radio, Game and Music. I tried clicking on Alein Shooter in the Game category, and the computer immediately retrieved the game from the internet. Much to my disappointment, I was only able to play for 10 minutes before being asked to buy it. Some of the games are free though.
Radio and Music are almost identical. The only difference is that on Radio, there are different stations with Top hits from different genres. Music is sorted by Artist, Global Artist, Mood or Genre. Still, it is nice to have the visual icons rather than a standard radio player in which you choose from a list of radio stations.
Asus  Easy Update

The next icon in the taskbar is Asus Easy Update, a screenshot of which is shown below:



The program is used to update the computer’s drivers; all you have to do is click ok. Then it automatically searches the internet for updates. Quite handy with a program that updates the system’s drivers so you do not have to go around searching for updates on different websites manually.

Asus update

The next icon in the taskbar is called Asus update, which might seem confusing, but this program is used to update the BIOS of the computer. See below:



As can be seen, there are plenty of options. Back in the day updating the BIOS was a rather nasty ordeal, because one mistake could set you back a new motherboard. Some BIOS chips did have a sticker you could remove, and then you could reset it with sunlight or UV light, but it was still a hassle. This program removes such problems entirely, being entirely automated, making it nice to update with.

Eee Manager

Eee Manager is the last of the taskbar icons. This program is used to control the taskbar and settings of your Eee. Screenshot shown below:



If you look at the menu in Eee Manager you will see Program, ASHE and Settings.

Program is used to add or remove programs from the taskbar. ASHE is used to control the performance and power consumption of the computer. Under Settings you can play around with the taskbar’s settings, for example you can hide the taskbar when it is not in use. In addition there are shortcuts to some of Windows’ standard settings; Wireless Network Setup, Network Connections, Volume and Control Panel.

The EeeBox PC EB1012 features ArcSoft TotalMedia Center as shown below:



Here you can choose between Game, Movie, Music, Photo and Video. It is pretty much an alternative to Windows Media Center. Nice to see a full version!

In addition to the media centre there is also a video and movie player. This is called ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre 3. See the screenshot below:



An alternative to Windows Media Player that supports a lot of different audio formats.

Benchmark

To get an idea of the EeeBox PC EB1012’s performance, Futuremark 3DMark06, Futuremark PCMark05 and PassMark PerformanceTest 7.0 evaluation version were used.
In case you want to compare it with your own computer, the EeeBox PC EB1012 is tested in 3Dmark06. Here it scores 1482 3DMarks. It is also tested in PCMark05, scoring 2449 PCMarks. These benchmarks have been run so that you have something to compare it with if you wish.
The PassMark PerformanceTest 7.0 evaluation version gives a good overview of the level of performance we are dealing with.

It is possible to retrieve baselines from others who have used the same program so you have something to compare with. In this case I have decided to compare it with the Asus EB1012, equipped with the Asrock A330GC chipset (tested on 27/10 2009). This has been chosen to see how the Asus EB1012 measures up to other chipsets.

The tests are both run in Windows 7 (32-bit). Both chipsets feature an Intel Atom 330 @ 1.60GHz CPU. In the task manager under the category ASHE, the computer is set to super performance. This makes the CPU run at a clock frequency of 1761 MHz on the Asus EB1012, whereas the Asrock A330GC runs at 1603.4 MHz. This was done to see the maximum performance.

Below is the test of the CPU test on the Asrock A330GC and Asus EB1012:



Here you can see that Asrock A330GC scores 631.5 and Asus EB1012 scores 700.1 in CPU Mark. Not much of a surprise since the latter runs at a higher frequency.

The two machines have different onboard GPUs. The Asrock A330GC sports an ATI Radeon HD 2400 whereas the Asus EB1012 comes with a Nvidia ION chip. First we will look at 2D Graphics Mark:



As can be seen, there is a difference, the largest of which is in the Complex Vectors test where the Asus EB1012 is 77.1% faster than the Asrock A330GC. This test draws up a jungle scene by using a number of complex vector images of trees and animals. This scene will be drawn as many times as possible within a certain time limit but only ends when the drawing is completed.

Note that when it comes to handling the Windows Interface, the ATI Radeon HD 2400 is 2.1% faster than the Nvidia ION chip in the Asus EB1012.

Having looked at 2D we will now examine 3D performance. 3DGrapics Mark is shown below:



Here you can see that the Nvidia ION chip in the Asus EB1012 is better than the ATI Radeon HD2400 when it comes to handling both simple and complex 3D graphics. The ATI Radeon HD 2400 handles medium graphics 7% better than the Nvidia ION chip in the Asus EB101, but both run at over 30 frames per second, which is the standard for playing movies.

Now we come to the memory test. It should be noted the Asus EB1012 has 2GB DDR2-800MHz while Asrock A330GC has 4GB DDR2-533MHz. Here are the results:



In the Memory – Large RAM test, Asrock A330GC is better at allocating larger memory blocks than Asus EB1012. However, the Asrock A330GC does feature twice as much RAM, thus allowing it to allocate more than Asus EB1012.

This is probably also the reason why Asrock A330GC scores 271.5 in Memory Mark and Asus EB1012 only scores 238.5.

Next comes the hard drive test in the EeeBox PC EB1012. See the results directly below:



The hard drive in the EeeBox PC EB1012 is clearly faster than that in the Asrock A330GC.

Here are all the Mark ratings to give you an overview over the benchmark results. The Mark rating is the overall score in each individual benchmark (the very first score in each benchmark). Here is the result:



The Asrock A330GC wins the memory test, most likely because it features 4GB of RAM vs only 2 in the EeeBox PC EB1012. However, the EeeBox scores an overall Passmark Rating that is 23.9% better than Asrock A330GC.

Conclusion

Considering its low power consumption, the EeeBox PC EB1012 delivers a very high performance. The computer practically begs to be used as a media centre, a function it easily lives up to. It is completely silent, making it even more attractive in that regard. With the HDMI output you can connect the EeeBox PC EB1012 to a TV and get the most out of both audio and video. It is both handsome and rather small, so it would do well as an office machine too. All in all, there is plenty of performance for a relatively low price.

Pros
Size
Silent
ION GPU
Draft-N Wireless
Discreet design
Keyboard and mouse included
Price

Cons:
Too many advertisements and special offers

Graphics:	3,5 / 5
Construction:	4 / 5
Software:	4 / 5
CPU Performance:	4 / 5
Innovation:	4 / 5
Price:	4 / 5
Accessories:	4 / 5
Design:	4 / 5
Performance:	4 / 5
Overall:	4 / 5