Compact desktop PCs like the Asus Eee Box EB1501P-B016E are popular among media-savvy users who like to stream their media onto a big screen. It's one of the easiest and most convenient ways to display your digital photos, videos, and other entertainment on your HDTV in your living room. The EB1501P-B016E is a complete package that comes with a mounting kit to hide it behind your large screen monitor or HDTV. However, heavy downloaders and Blu-ray enthusiasts may want to look at desktop more like the Dell Inspiron Zino HD (Inspiron 410)
, which comes with better performance, a larger hard drive, and Blu-ray.
, which comes with better performance, a larger hard drive, and Blu-ray.
Design and Features
The EB1501P-B016E has an elongated oval tube shape, like the Dell Studio Hybrid and Giada Ultra MiniPC DN2301 (stay tuned for our review). Like the Giada DN2301, the EB1501P-B016E is larger than the Dell Studio Hybrid, with room for a slot-loading optical drive and a plethora of I/O ports—a good thing since the EB1501P-B016E lacks any sort of internal expansion. The I/O ports include 4 USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, a SD/MMC card reader, eSATA, VGA, HDMI, and SPDIF. The desktop has 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi built-in, and also comes with a wireless keyboard and mouse, so cable-clutter is at a minimum if you hook it up to a monitor via HDMI. The desktop comes with an IR remote to control media playback: The IR receiver is built-in. Audio output through the HDMI adapter is easy, but if you want true surround sound, you can hook up an AV receiver to the built-in SPDIF port. Another big plus is the included VESA mount kit, so you could bolt the EB1501P-B016E to the back of many large screen monitors and HDTVs. If it weren't for the lack of a Blu-ray drive, this would be the perfect PC to hook up to a HDTV.
The EB1501P-B016E has an elongated oval tube shape, like the Dell Studio Hybrid and Giada Ultra MiniPC DN2301 (stay tuned for our review). Like the Giada DN2301, the EB1501P-B016E is larger than the Dell Studio Hybrid, with room for a slot-loading optical drive and a plethora of I/O ports—a good thing since the EB1501P-B016E lacks any sort of internal expansion. The I/O ports include 4 USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, a SD/MMC card reader, eSATA, VGA, HDMI, and SPDIF. The desktop has 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi built-in, and also comes with a wireless keyboard and mouse, so cable-clutter is at a minimum if you hook it up to a monitor via HDMI. The desktop comes with an IR remote to control media playback: The IR receiver is built-in. Audio output through the HDMI adapter is easy, but if you want true surround sound, you can hook up an AV receiver to the built-in SPDIF port. Another big plus is the included VESA mount kit, so you could bolt the EB1501P-B016E to the back of many large screen monitors and HDTVs. If it weren't for the lack of a Blu-ray drive, this would be the perfect PC to hook up to a HDTV.
The EB1501P-B016E comes with a DVD burner, and a 320GB 5,400rpm hard drive, which is a little small (and slow) for a multimedia system. I'd like to see at least 500GB so it can hold larger video files, even if it doesn't have a TV tuner. I should also point out that the media card reader can only read cards in the SD family (MMC/SD/SDHC/SDXC), leaving out the similarly sized Memory Stick and xD formats.
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