Asus Eee Box

Product Survey: mini PCs

Alongside its EeePC range, Asus also has a range of mini PCs based largely on the same components as its incredibly popular netbooks. These EeeBoxs are marketed as 'extra' computers to go in a kid's bedroom, say, or hide behind your TV to turn it into a multimedia center. The EeeBox is very compact and light, and if you're used to having a large tower on (on even under) your desk, it's hard to imagine how a regular desktop computer manages to fit inside. Asus has managed it by using the same components that it uses for netbooks inside a different form factor. To keep things simple, the EeeBox that we tested is more else exactly the same as the Eee PC 1000H, just in a different shape case. What's missing, though, is a screen, a keyboard and a mouse--you're expected to provide all those--and a battery, as the EeeBox isn't designed to stay in one place. Instead, you get more connectivity options: on the front there are now four USB ports, one Ethernet port, a memory card reader and a DVI output instead of VGA.