Asus Eee Box B204

Asus Eee Box B204

The Eee Box certainly isn’t a conventional PC, not just with respect to the hardware inside but also in the looks department. Propped up on its stand the Eee Box has some really promising aesthetic qualities with a simple, yet effective design.

This kind of contemporary, modern styling exhibited by the product is ever growing in the PC industry... something that up until recently was reserved for premium brands. Very impressed with Asus here – it’s just a shame that they have to plaster so many adhesive labels on the side panel (though I do understand that some of them are required). For those interested, the stickers do peel off fairly easily but some leave messy glue to clean off.

Thanks to the small form factor of the system it fits in the smallest of spaces and is incredibly unobtrusive compared to most desktop solutions. Additionally, the system is supplied with a VESA compliant mounting bracket for LCDs... very neat stuff. (see pic below).



Flipping open the front panel reveals the on/off switch, card reader, two USB ports and audio jacks. Turning to the rear of the machine we can see the Wi-Fi antenna connector, a further two USB ports, a gigabit Ethernet port, a line-out (the bundle contains an optical adaptor) and the all too important HDMI port, a key feature of this machine allowing you to quickly hook up the Eee Box as a media centre.

As you can see, the Eee Box is a fraction of the size of your traditional desktop and smaller than many other small form factor machines.

The power supply is small and compact making it unobtrusive in place. The bundle includes an LCD mount, HDMI cable, the neccessary CDs and documentation along with the Wi-Fi antenna and the remote and USB reciever. It would have been nice to have a built in receiver for the remote as the little dongle can be a bit frustrating to place and takes up one of your valuable USB ports.