[bossanova808]

Updated to reflect this turned out to be not fanless...

http://www.asus.com/Eee_Box_PCs/EB1037/#overview

New machine from Asus, possible xbmc box - any thoughts on pros and cons?

Key specs:

✓ Fanless cooling! NOT!!!
✓ Bay Trail Celeron J1900 (4 cores @ 2,00 GHz, up to 2.42 GHz)
✓ NVIDIA GeForce 820M / 512MB
✓ 2 GB Up to 8 GB RAM
✓ 320GB Up to 1TB HDD options
✓ 64GB Up to 128GB SSD options
✓ 1 x 4-in-1 Card Reader
✓ 2 x USB 3.0 port
✓ 4 x USB 2.0 ports
✓ 1 x HDMI
✓ 1 x VGA
✓ 1 x SPDIF / 3.5mm audio combo output (you can see this in the gallery pictures quite clearly)
✓ 1 x Gigabit Ethernet
✓ 802.11b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi
✓ Bluetooth 4.0
✓ 219 x 172.5 x 29 mm (WxDxH)




Not sure on pricing yet...

[pumkinut]

Assuming you can place it horizontally, and the price is right, that thing might replace my ATV1 running Crystalbuntu. With an nVidia GPU video should be fine, and it should bitstream HD audio just fine. Being an x20 GPU rev will limit it to video pretty much though (not that that's a bad thing).

[bossanova808]

Some pictures here show it horizontal although generally these fanless boxes (Shuttle etc) - are done vertically to increase the surface area for heat dissipation.

http://www.asus.com/Eee_Box_PCs/EB1037/#gallery

You can vesa mount it to the back of a monitor/screen of course. It's apparently even rotatable for easy port access...

To me this looks the successor to the early ION boxes and Shuttle XS35 etc. - as long as it makes the UI fairly nippy, you get the benefits of established nvidia graphics (best for linux, OE etc still, I think). Zero noise etc.

[teeedubb]

Looks good! Wonder how much it will cost though...

[bossanova808]

I saw reference to euro 299 to 399 for equipped versions, not sure if ASUS do bare bones...

Honestly, over time with xbmc I have found the right machine is more important than $100 here or there. I'm in for the long haul and want everything to play nice

[teeedubb]

Exactly.. While I do enjoy tweaking I want things to work.. Mainly so I don't get the dreaded 'death stare' accompanied by 'why can't this just work' from the other half. And a nvidia GPU with linux is one of the things that just works and is a major selling point of this PC for me and worth paying extra for.

And there's nothing worse than buying the cheaper inferior product then having to buy the more expensive version because the cheaper one didn't work properly...

[ursli]

That does look like a very nice upgrade from my hd nd 22, will certainly keep an eye out for pricing, thanks for the post.

[BORIStheBLADE]

Nice! I'll have to keep an eye on it.

[Jorgensen]

Interesting! But no IR.

[bossanova808]

Well yeah but IR is very easy to add. With these sort of things I tend to hide the box completely (eg behind telly) and just have the IR thing discreetly out. There's also wireless and bluetooth, so plenty of options really.

Would be nice if the IR dongle could power and/or wake it up successfully, but with a low power draw it's sometimes just easier to leave the thing on.

[bbtiger]

Interesting! But no IR.

No SPDIF either

[ezechiel1917]

Nice one! Exactly what I was hoping for last few years... Fanless nvidia with decent cpu in small form-factor.
Hopefully that fermi based 820m gpu will be enough for VDPAU Temporal/Spatial 1080i50 deinterlacing.

[nooryani84]

Interesting! But no IR.

No SPDIF either

Use FLIRC for the IR and something like this for SPDIF http://www.amazon.co.uk/Creative-70SB109...ternal+USB

If not then go with a Gigabyte Brix.. however you wont find a pre-built PC with this Celeron chip yet afaik.

[ezechiel1917]

Btw from those images it looks SPDIF is actually there (shared with headphone plug).

[ertman]

Maximumpc had an article on this too.

The Eee Box EB1037 isn't offered in the U.S. just yet, though some overseas shops have it listed for around 270 euros (~$364 in U.S. currency).

Might be a little cheaper in NA.

Seems like a nice power efficient box for HTPC use.