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.

Handling & Connectivity
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.

The switch to DVI means that the EeeBox can function as a multimedia PC, by connecting to the HDMI port on your TV, and the maximum output resolution is a very high 1920 x 1200 pixels.

On the back, a clever mini-jack port can also provide an optical signal, although you'll either need a compatible cable or the special adaptor provided by Asus.



The version Asus sent us for testing had an 80 GB hard drive, but these are gradually being replaced by 160 GB models.   (Both are still available online, so check twice before you buy.)

We found our EeeBox to be incredibly quiet, producing next to no noise unless you press your ear up to it. 

Consuming between 18 W and 24 W, it's energy efficient too--more so than most desktop PCs and a lot of notebooks, too.

DVI, power cable and WiFi antenna	Optical sound out
Memory card reader	2 USB and 2 Mini-jacks

Processing Power
There aren't any surprises in store here: using netbook-quality components will get you netbook results.  Turning the computer on is fast, requiring 55 seconds to launch Windows, or giving almost instantaneous access to the Express Gate interface (see below).  Launching applications, playing video and other tasks are also executed rapidly.  Getting stuck in to more challenging activities that make more intensive use of the CPU, like rendering video, still takes around three times longer than on a mid-range or high-end laptop.

As a media player, the Eee Box really hits the buffers when it has to deal with HD content as its processor just isn't powerful enough to decode things like Full HD Blu-ray content to watch on the DVI output.  This drawback has cost the Eee Box a star in our rating system, and we very much hope that future versions rectify this problem.

Express Gate

As soon as you fire it up, the EeeBox gives you the choice between two operating systems: Windows XP, or Asus' proprietary ExpressGate based on a stripped-down Linux distribution.

It gives direct access to a handful of applications that you might want to use straight away: web browsing, e-mail, instant messaging and Skype.

It's very useful if you need to fire off an e-mail in a hurry without waiting for Windows to load and then the application you need.

To get the most out of it though, you'll need a little patience and extra configuration: ExpressGate doesn't have access to the data on your Windows partition, and if you're using wireless internet, that will need setting up again.