Asus EB1501P-B016E

Wholesale ASUS Eee Box EB1501P-B016E Nettop PC - Black Great computer for what it's intended to beBy chia petI've only owned this computer for 1 month, but feel compelled to offer a different viewpoint to the other reviewers. When I purchased this computer, it had no reviews, and I was not fully sold on the concept of a 'net top' (worried about intolerably slow performance). I have been building my own systems for work and personal use for 15 years and bought this system to replace a home-built system. I expected to be disappointed. I expected the system to only be usable for web browsing and to stutter a bit on video streaming.My first impressions of the Asus EB1501P - it's cute! it's small! it's light! It's literally smaller than my wireless router. Set up was a breeze. It took about 30 minutes to do everything -- starting windows for the first time w/ its configuration steps, removing some of the unnecessary software that was pre-installed, locking down some of the security settings & unneeded services, customizing settings, and backing up the system. It took a very short period of time to migrate my data and install the applications running on my previous system. Wireless networking worked immediately out of box, even with uncommon security settings, which was a pleasant surprise and has never been the case with any other computer or device I've used. It has a short wireless antenna and receives a much stronger signal from my router than any other device I have. The included wireless keyboard and mouse work well. I haven't tried the remote yet. Unlike my much more expensive computers, this worked out of box with a 5.1 channel audio receiver without any additional set up.Out of box system performance is slower than your average NEW desktop but not unusable. This is due to the limited amount of memory (ships with 2GB). When running a number of very intensive applications, the system was consistently using 1.5GB of memory. This does not leave much overhead. Apps were slow to open (~10 seconds - I am impatient) and sometimes switching between apps froze the app for a couple of seconds. This is comparable or BETTER than any "net book" laptop I've used. Even with these limitations, the system lived up to my expectations based on its intended purpose and specifications and is completely usable for web browsing, music streaming, and video playback. I made two modifications which made me exceptionally happy with this system: 1) Upgraded the memory to 4GB - if you are already spending this much on a net box, the memory upgrade is only another $75-80 and drastically improves performance.2) Added a large USB drive for media file storage & backup.With these changes, the system is performing well enough to replace my other computers for normal daily use. I was most concerned with multi-tasking. I have Firefox, Chrome, iTunes, Tivo Desktop & Service daemon, Norton Internet Security, Windows Media Player, most of Asus's apps, and a few other intensive things, all open and used concurrently without issues. Streaming music and video has not caused any substantial resource spikes. (Caveat, I've heard 1080p playback via HDMI is choppy, but that lower resolutions are just fine -- I've done HD internet streaming with no problem but mostly at 480i). Memory usage is consistently in the 2-2.5GB range (and has never gone over ~2.8GB), which is not a problem in a 4GB system. CPU usage is almost always very low. Sidenote: all of my software was bought for a Windows XP 32-bit system, and I have had no problem at all with apps working on Windows 7 64-bit, which is pre-installed on the Asus.Literally my only complaint was that I could not find clear specifications in order to confirm the type of memory used by the system. I had to wait until the system arrived to open the case.Rating is -1 star for two reasons: 1) price... I think it's a lot for what you get, but that said, every other similar system I've looked at was more expensive without much advantage; and 2) I think this could have been built with 4GB memory for a very small incremental price and would have been a much better system.Here is the upgrade kit that is needed to bring the system to 4GB. Upgrading the memory was easy and there are tutorials on the web for other Asus models with identical case design). Note the pre-installed memory is 1 - 2GB stick, but the existing memory is an off-brand and I didn't want to have to worry about potential problems with mismatched memory.Crucial Technology Unbuffered Non - ECC DDR3-1066 1.5V 4 GB Memory Kit CT2CP25664BC133923 of 26 people found the following review helpful. » More Information about ASUS Eee Box EB1501P-B016E Nettop PC - Black.

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