EEE-BOX + PCLinuxOS KDE 2010.12

[AS]

This is a micro-recension about Asus EEE-BOX with PCLinuxOS:
it's a very small desktop PC, with a low power CPU, Atom N270 D410 Dual core 1.66 Ghz, 1 Gb RAM, 160 Gb Sata HD, 6 USB, 1 Ethernet, 1 Wireless, 1 e-Sata, 1 MMC/SD, Audio, standard 15 pin Dsub video.

This machine, although using low power CPU is nearly a complete PC. Dimensions: 222 x 178 x 27 mm (8,7 x 7 x 1 inch), average power consumption 20 W.
more info here: http://event.asus.com/eeepc/microsites/eeebox/en/index.html

Installed PClinuxOS KDE 2010.12, it work out of the box, few minutes to configure the wireless Atheros AR9285, updated repo list, installed updates, reboot, all fine, including audio.
The interesting thing is that you can buy this machine without pay the OS, Asus offer a range of this EEE-BOX so you can choose the version without OS, the Linux Version, or the M$ XP Home.
The version I have bought is EEE-BOX EB1007, without OS, specs as described above, the price is around 200 Euros, (~ 280 US $).
I found it very interesting, some applications/use really don't require great CPU power, (i.e. Internet + email + IM + skype).

some technical data: lspci

Code:

[root@eee ~]# lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation N10 Family DMI Bridge
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation N10 Family Integrated Graphics Controller
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation N10 Family Integrated Graphics Controller
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 2 (rev 02)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 3 (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation NM10 Family LPC Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH7 Family SATA AHCI Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family SMBus Controller (rev 02)
02:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: JMicron Technology Corp. JMC250 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 03)

hdparm -tT:

Code:

[root@eee ~]# hdparm -tT /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
 Timing cached reads:   1362 MB in  2.00 seconds = 680.40 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads: 176 MB in  3.03 seconds =  58.00 MB/sec

glxgears show approx. 410 fps, and 60 fps in full screen ( the video driver is intel 810 an later ), no problem with flash video even using full screen.
As side note, EEE-BOX can be mounted on the rear of LCD monitor, and fan noise is very low, you can think it's fanless (but it's not).

I you need a small PC, for a limited use, this is a great small machine, it run PCLinuxOS KDE without performance issue, I will try some other lighter version OF PClinuxOS in the next days.
Of course it's not a PC for developers  

AS

[kernowyon]

Of course it's not a PC for developers 

AS

How technology moves on!  I remember working on Linux development back at the end of 1998 or so, using my (then) state of the art 600MHz Pentium3.

I will be interested to see how you get on with the EeeBox. I have been looking at a different little box - the Revo from Acer - for using as a replacement for my server box.

[AS]

Of course it's not a PC for developers 

AS

How technology moves on!  I remember working on Linux development back at the end of 1998 or so, using my (then) state of the art 600MHz Pentium3.

I will be interested to see how you get on with the EeeBox. I have been looking at a different little box - the Revo from Acer - for using as a replacement for my server box.

I have used also the Acer Revo in the past, a quite similar machine from a performance point of view, still I prefer the Asus EEE-BOX from a mechanical point of view, much more accurate and compact, the Acer Revo had a very wrong power-on key, fail to understand in what direction it should be pushed, a (somewhat raw) plastic box, and bigger dimension.

Depending on your requirement, you should evaluate the whole family, some model has HDMI and/or DVI video output, (nvidia ION2) some other include DVD optical unit ... some has an internal backup battery (20 minutes ...), avoid the Celeron220 CPU models to much heating, of course prices can increase ...

I have to correct myself about the CPU, it's a Atom D410, while in the past used to be Atom N270... so it's more or less 12%~13% better in performance.
If, by server box, you mean something running samba + NFS + apache +  mysql + ... then I think it's a bit underpowered for your use, in this case I would go for something like HP Proliant microserver ... still a cheap machine.
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF06a/15351-15351-4237916-4237918-4237917-4248009.html

AS
 

[Ferdes Fides]

Hi,

The top of the line EEE-Box is about $500 and includes a DVD-RW and a 1.8 ghz dual core.
I guess the CPU speed is as high as they can go without more power consumption.   Hopefully
it would play the best movies in full color as that's very needed in a desktop with a larger
monitor at home.

A Dell, a second choice, is about $400, but is a medium tower with a 3.2 ghz dual core CPU.
Dell's are very quiet as well.  They might be identical in playing videos.   The EEE-Box does
look very good attached to the back of the monitor out of sight.