What's the betting that it will be more like £267 by the time it goes on sale in the UK?

In all seriousness Giles, you're better of taking the price in dollars ($326), adding on a bit of a surcharge as you would anyway for US sales, let's say making it $350, and then converting it as if £1=1.2$ which is roughly what things seem to be selling at currently, making it £290.

So I'd predict between £280 and £300 when it's on sale in the UK.

And to be honest, I've stopped playing PC games and have no need for the giant massive box I currently use, and I'd more than happily pay £300 for an Eee Box and then another couple of hundred for a massive external HDD. And that's because I will pay for convenience - the same reason I would pay through the nose for a 12" or 11" laptop when you can save a huge markup by buying the identical laptop in 15" or 17".

I'm not quite clear how these might fit in a real setting.

Possibly a photo of one with a typical user?

That gives me a woody

Mines the one with a copy of razzle

Now they just need to replace the white plastic with brass. Possibly add a steam whistle.

... would prove how little Asus seem to understand the market they've created.

Maybe it'll just be £500 for the Linux version, £0.50 for the Windows version because, ummmm, the Windows version has mildly less plastic in it?

However, I doubt it'll be quite as much as that, maybe £200 or so but not much more. Price is always going to be the real driver with any Eee machine - Asus have made sure of that.

A desktot!

It's pretty. But to be honest I'd rather have something beefier. I don't move my desktop around a lot so I don't see the point in having one so small.

Still, I like the trend of shrinking PCs.

Also: Can we have an icon for "I love my EEE and am posting from it"?

...or even higher. That said, they can only go so high before they start to get into the Intel-based Mac Mini price range.

...it appears to be upholstered in panda food! Please tell me that's not standard.

A friend on the beach...

Mine's the one with sand in the pockets.

Meh.

For £200 I'd rather get the Acer Aspire. What's the point of a cute box if it isn't portable?

If this can be coaxed to run Windows Media Center, then I'm sold. Looks very nice!

Just need a desktop lovEeely for this model now.

Walnut, Oak or Mahogony?

Mines the lumberjack jacket over the sawhorse

Giles,

FWIW I completely agree with you.

However, beware the fate of those who have the audacity to state obvious facts related to how much we pay here in the UK versus everywhere else will only result in corrective statements from people with nothing better to do that point out that 1) we pay VAT 2) they pay sales tax and 3) by the time you add the shipping costs actually the differential isn't actually worth the airfare.

Just so you know ...

Tim

Looks very very nice, *but*, where's the audio sockets? Simple audio in and out for speakers and a mic?

Oh and can I get it with all the Open Office and Sky, Firefox,...Thunderbird, etc. that's supplied on the Eeepc?

Oh and can it also lay flat?

> There's another port below it - the power connector's near the base - that some reports maintain is a TV tuner link.

If that's a "TV tuner link" then where's the audio out for my speakers? You know, that "TV tuner link" looks suspiciously like a 3.5mm audio jack...

External TV tuners are usually connected by USB anyway (even my internal "PCI" one is really the guts from a USB tuner and a PCI->USB chip on the same PCB). I don't know why anyone would invent some proprietary standard.

is it made of old matchsticks or what? and with a hint of apple's mac mini..and what is the actual point of this when compared to their laptops? eh?

Wow, that actually might be a Mac Mini killer. You'd finally have a small working computer. The only thing I don't like is that stand.

...is probably the DC power input socket (that is unless that pretty metal stand doubles as an inductive power pickup) I suspect the audio in/out is probably under that alledged flap at the front.

It'd also be interesting to see if it's real wood it's coated with or just wood print tacky back plastic (in that case you could probably get any finish your heart could possibly desire).

"Now they just need to replace the white plastic with brass. Possibly add a steam whistle."

Brass and a steam whistle?... If I owned a computer manufacturing company you'd be my head designer!

I've been waiting for more details of the ebox since I first heard rumours that Asus were producing a desktop model of the Eee (I've had a 701 since last November) but honestly so far it doesn't impress me...

From the details I've seen so far the MSI wind desktop looks like a more promising machine for my usage.

Guess we'll have to wait for production versions of both to be able to compare them properly though.

To all those quibbling about the price, if you import a new one then you'll get hit for import duty too.

I recently imported a device that cost me £350, but after VAT and import duty, it ended up being £470. Not quite the deal I thought it was.

The point is to replace them power hungry Desktops (that have screens) now peak oil era is here! Take in mind a PC costs about 1 ton of co2 and that before you switch it on.

I don't see a slot.

Wood looks cool though, with the stand I'm reminded of a 70's era TV

I think the tv tuner connection is more likely a S-Video or composite, or even component connection for a TV that does have a DVI connection.

I Love it but for a sale from me it has to be around the £200 mark and no more

I'm not buying something that I have to creosote every summer.

Seriously, what is with the wood effect? Is it to blend in with the laminate flooring of the expected buyers?

that's bamboo

A wonderfully compact design that shows how a reduction in a key factor like CPU power utilization results in a form factor revolution.

Lower power consumption = losing the bulky power supply, and the cooling equipment, CPU fan, etc.

You should be able to run the thing for a couple of weeks, off of a LEAD Acid pile kept under your desk, months if you include the energy generated by opeining your office door, shuffling your feet and swivling your chair left and right.

I preseme the laptop version of the EE PC has the video backlighting as it's primary power consumption load.

Any reason why no mention of the Asus instant on option?

All Asus motherboards as well as some laptop series will have the Splashtop instant-on option, which is embedded Linux.

5 seconds boot time and you are in a stripped down Linux with Firefox, Skype, IM and a photoviewer. For people who are going online to check their emails regularly, this is amazing.

For decades, we have been complaining about slow boot time.

This lets you bypass that and should be a huge selling point.

Call it a green technology if you want to make it seem sexier!

For TV, all you need is a USB slot and one of those DVB sticks that you can get for around 30 quid. USB is generally more compact than your average TV aerial.

Most of them work in linux too!

I was under the impression that the Mac Mini is a very poor seller.

Stick an IR receiver and a TOSLINK (or just HDMI port) and we could have had a ideal XMBC machine.

DVI to hdmi is just a question of using an adapter cable hdmi is DVI plus a few extra bits for sound and control. Haven't seen a dvi + audio -> hdmi yet.

Cheap , quiet , low power and small.

.. a thin client.

And if you buy a decent enough HP terminal (other brands available) the specification and price isn't anything that new or unusual either.

"there's an external antenna that fits onto a special port on the back of the unit."

As in, a STANDARD connector, or something proprietary?

"The one at the bottom is an SPDif digital optical connector."

Is it the mini version? Why didn't they go for the more common larger connector? Saves us having to use

No PS/2, not that much of a problem these days... 2 usb, mmmm... keyboard, mouse... LOSE. Yes there are some on the front but come on, front should be closed most the time. And what about speakers, always plugged into the front? very clever.

Would be funky though with bluetooth keyboard/mouse and maybe even some wireless speakers.

Probably no chance of this playing HD media I assume? Audio over DVI?

Wonder if it can do some sort of RDP Windows Terminal Server client? Might be in interesting alternate to all the SunRay boxes we have around here.