ASUS Eee Box EB1501 Review

02/06/10 / Nettops

Review Summary

The ASUS Eee Box EB1501 is the best looking nettop available today and has the performance to match. Thanks to the Nvidia ION graphics it handles 1080p HD video with ease. Very quiet and stays cool. DVD drive may be handy to some but it adds to the cost of the nettop and adds bulk when it could be smaller.

Where to buy the ASUS Eee Box EB1501?

Amazon.com $465

Pros

Very quiet
Stays cool
Good performance
1080p HD support (including Flash)
DVD drive for installing software / OSes
S/PDIF optical out
Remote control
Can place vertically or horizontally

Cons

A bit expensive
DVD drive may be superfluous for some, adds bulk
No recovery media

ASUS Eee Box EB1501 Deals & Coupons see all

Introduction

The ASUS Eee Box EB1501 is ASUS’ latest nettop entry in their Eee Box series, with a brand new design and the first to sport an optical DVD drive. It started to go on sale late last year (2009) and perhaps even earlier in Europe.

Specs

Intel Atom 330 processor (dual core, 1.66GHz)
Nvidia ION graphics
2GB RAM
250GB HDD (2.5” SATA)
802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi
HDMI, VGA, S/PDIF (3.5mm jack) outputs
6x USB 2.0, card reader, audio jacks, Gigabit LAN, Kensington lock
Windows 7 Home Premium (may be 32-bit or 64-bit - mine is 32-bit)
DVD burner
built-in IR receiver

Box Contents

Tons of stuff in the box, though sadly no recovery DVD:

ASUS Eee Box EB1501
Wireless keyboard
Wireless mouse (hides dongle)
Optical S/PDIF adapter (for 3.5mm jack)
VESA mount + screws
Stand + screw
Remote control
Adapter + cable

Here’s the unboxing video for the Eee Box EB1501:

Peripherals

Note that the remote is optional and may not come with your model. Mouse and keyboard vary by reigon.

The Eee Box EB1501 comes with a wireless keyboard and mouse which varies depending on where you buy it. The European models are wired. The US models have chiclet keys and this Japanese model is a full sized keyboard. Both the mouse and keyboard feel pretty cheap if you compare them to a good Microsoft or Logitech keyboard / mouse but they suffice for occasional use.

Now, the remote control! This is a new addition to the Eee Box lineup and I’ve seen it with other nettops like the ASRock ION 330 series. Makes watching movies all that more enjoyable and depending on your setup, means you don’t have to whip out the wireless keyboard. You can control the whole experience with just the remote provided you are in Windows Media Center.

Granted it’s not the best designed remote (no pause / play toggle button, positions and sizes of most commonly used buttons are not what you’d expect) but it gets the job done. Buttons light up each time you hit a button which could be handy in the dark I guess. Cursor keys for navigating menus, large Windows button for launching Windows Media Center.

With the power button you can turn the EB1501 on or off, and the default action is to put the nettop into standby. Whether or not the nettop is in standby or completely shut down you can turn it on with the remote.

There are some additional buttons for recording or changing TV channels but for my particular setup there is no TV functionality.

I am not able to test out the included VESA mount as none of my monitors have suitable mounts.

Here’s a video taking a quick look at the remote, 1080p playback and the DVD drive:

Software

There’s a lot of bloatware installed by default. Lots of useless ASUS software installed, i-Filter and anti-virus software which slows down your boot up time. The remote is tied to Windows Media Center. I would love to be able to configure the launch button on the remote but haven’t found a way yet.

I like the design of Windows Media Center but it just does not pick up any of my videos, so I tried to get XBMC working. Under Windows 7, it installs and runs no problem, off the HDD, but there’s no hardware acceleration enabled by default, out of the box. If you have time on your hands, you can configure XBMC to launch an external video player or try to get the latest builds which might have acceleration working out of the box.

I had no success launching a Live CD version of XBMC (hanged at some point during the install) though others report success. There is a discussion about the EB1501 with XBMC on the XBMC community forums.

One important note is that there is no recovery DVD and no options to make a recovery DVD from ASUS which is usually the norm. You have to use a third party app or Windows 7 built in apps to make your own recovery media. There is a recovery partition, though you can’t access it with Boot booster turned on which is on by default. You can change this in the BIOS options (F2 key)

Ports & Layout

On the front: DVD burner (slot variety), card reader, IR receiver for remote, 2x USB 2.0, headphone and mic jacks and power button.

On the back: Antenna, 4x USB 2.0, VGA, HDMI, eSATA, Gigabit LAN, S/PDIF out (3.5mm jack) and A/C jack. For the S/PDIF jack, you can plug in an optical cable adapter that is included in the package and then easily plug in an optical cable.

There are air vents on the top and bottom so it is safe to place it horizontally if you don’t want to use a stand. The Wi-Fi antenna is adjustable in either orientation.

The stand screws on to the bottom edge of the EB1501 with a single screw. Don’t worry it’s very sturdy.

A closer look at the power button which is lit up as well as the area just beside it. Very faint and not too distracting like on some other nettops with bright blue LED lighting)

Noise

I happy to say the Eee Box EB1501 is very quiet. I have to put my head near the nettop to be able to hear it. The loudest part is when the DVD drive sets itself up which happens on boot, when you install something or boot up from a CD. Mind you, all these tests are done in silence. Once you’re watching a movie however little noise the nettop has becomes irrelevant.

Seems just as quiet if not quieter than my single core Acer Aspire Revo R1600.

Heat

Just touching the chassis feels cool and there’s a tad of warmth in the cool air coming out of the vent at the top. That’s after it has been on for a couple of hours, though mostly idling.

Performance

I’ve noticed that there is a SHE manager like you get on the Eee PC netbooks. There are three settings: power saving mode, performance mode and super performance mode. Changing one of these settings will require / forces a reboot. All modes play 1080p HD video fine. For desktop usage I’d have it on Super Performance mode.

Thanks to the Nvidia ION graphics inside the Eee Box EB1501 you can easily enjoy any type of HD video out there. That includes YouTube HD video, though I recommend you download the latest drivers: Flash 10.1 (Beta 2 currently) and the latest Nvidia ION drivers (196.21 currently) to get the most out of Flash. It’s still in Beta mode but it’s not perfect but HD video is still very watchable.

My personal nettop for over a year has been a single core Acer Aspire Revo and this is the first time I’ve actually bothered to benchmark the performance of a dual core Atom 330 processor with Nvidia ION graphics, which comes in the Eee Box EB1501. Very big drop in CPU usage over the single core versions when it comes to video playback (30 - 50% down to 16 - 20%).

Below are some benchmark results using the following videos:

Bourne Identity 1080p (1920 x 816, 10.5 Mbps bitrate)
Terminator 4 (720p, 1280 x 532, 5.3 Mbps bitrate)
Shutter Island Trailer (1920 x 800, 10.8 Mpbs bitrate)

Testing for the below benchmarks were done on performance mode (as opposed to power saving and super performance modes). Didn’t see any differences in power consumption on the power saving mode.

Test	CPU Usage	Power Consumption
Standby	N/A	0W
Idle	~1%	20W
Playing MP3	~5%	21W
AVC MPEG-4 1080p (QuickTime)	~16%	24W
H.264 1080p (MKV)	~20%	25W
H.264 720p (MKV)	~19%	25W
H.264 720p (Flash)	~45%	25W
H.264 1080p (Flash)	~50%	26W
MPEG-2 DVD in slot	~8%	26W

Now a look at how swift Windows 7 Home Premium boots and shutdowns. I’ve removed a bit of bloatware like Antivirus software, ASUS dock etc.

Standby: 19 - 21 secs
Resume: 4 secs
Shutdown: 18 secs
Boot up (boot booster on): ~1 min, 7 secs

Some benchmark figures comparing power saving and super performance mode (performance mode should be somewhere in between):

	Power Saving	Super Performance
Score	20,209	30,443
ALU	3,075	6,070
FPU	2,779	5,238
MEM	2,576	5,220
HDD	8,224	8,287
GDI	1,400	3,240
D2D	1,905	1,929
OGL	250	459

Size & Weight

Due to the addition of a DVD drive, the Eee Box EB1501 is a little larger than previous Eee Boxes and other nettops without DVD drives. The dimensions of the Eee Box are:

Some size comparsions (hand, Acer Aspire Revo)

The power brick is decently sized and the same size as the power brick that you get with the Acer Aspire Revo nettop: 19.4cm x 19.4cm x 3.9cm in size. Standing vertically with the base attached it reaches a height of ~26.5cm.

The EB1501 weighs 1.23 kg with the stand and 1.02 kg without the stand.

Upgrades

It’s very simple to take apart the Eee Box EB1501 and get to the insides. Should not take more than a couple of minutes. It’s as easy as taking off all the screws on the back and one side of the chassis will slide off, there’s no need to worry about breaking anything. Check out my video below for taking it apart.

On the inside you’ve got access to a single 2.5” SATA bay, half-sized mini PCI-e slot being used by Wi-Fi and 2x RAM slots.

Reader Comments (19)

Matt 02/06 at 07:04 AM

Great review Peter, I have been impressed with it ever since my hands on.

Strange how Media Center didn’t find your videos, did you add the folder as a library?. Also, Windows 7 Media Center should have hardware decoding enabled by default, as it supports DXVA.

Norbert 02/06 at 09:44 PM

Thank you for a good review, I think It’s a pretty good nettop for a small home media usage. But I need to ask you, what about performance on some old or non graphics-intensive games? Can you try some tests?

By the Way—> Keep up the good work Peter!

Ion 02/07 at 11:29 AM

Peter, MPC-HC has support for MCE remotes for a while now. Just need the latest MPC-HC builds.

“Added : support for MCE remote control (values added in AppCommand column in “Options/Player/Keys”“

Here’s the latest build as of today.

http://www.xvidvideo.ru/media-player-classic-home-cinema-x86-x64/media-player-classic-homecinema-x86-x64-svn-1623.html

Also, MS has released the latest DirectX Redist February 2010, this will be required for the next official MPC-HC release, please install this when you can.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0CEF8180-E94A-4F56-B157-5AB8109CB4F5&displaylang=en

momo 02/11 at 04:12 AM

if the remote is infrared and you mount the box behind a tv with the vesa mount, does the remote even work?

bakingsoda 02/19 at 05:22 AM

Peter,

You mentioned you have the Acer Aspire Revo. Which model did you have? I’m looking at the Asus Eee Box EB1501 and the Acer Aspire Revo R3610. The R3610 is comparable to the EB1501 but cheaper minus the remote and dvd drive.

Paul 02/26 at 12:29 AM

Great review! At first I thought it was an old Asus Eee Box nettop that was released about a year ago - didn’t know Asus has released a newer one. I mainly use my desktop for Office works, surf the web (either Firefox or Chrome), and watching HD video including HD videos on Youtube. What about the performance in those areas? And how much did you buy the Asus EB1501? Thank you.

Tornado 02/26 at 03:49 PM

I just set up my new 1501 and was surprised to find that the initial setup created four partitions on the 250GB HDD. Two are small and used for auto-recovery. But setup created a 40GB C: where it installed windows and a blank D: with nearly 200GB of space. This seems like a totally unnecessary headache. The C: is already half full with nothing but the OS and pre-installed software.

I called Asus and they said this was done intentionally because customers wanted it that way—sort of a non-answer. They provided no solution other than buying a new copy of Win 7 and reinstall. Does anyone else have this strange partitioning? Any suggestions about how to use it the way it is, combine partitions, or deal with the hassle of reinstalling from another source?

Paul 03/01 at 01:21 AM

Thanks, Peter.

Tornado 03/02 at 09:30 AM

Paul, Thanks for the answer. I checked out Gparted but in the end I decided to reinstall win 7 from a homemade install disk and use the key code on the 1501 to activate it. I don’t miss any of the asus preloaded software, and reinstalling the drivers was much easier than I expected—only one driver, for the nvidia coprocessor, was not automatically recognized by the win 7 setup.

With one large partition and no “bloatware” the computer runs great. I’m really happy with the small footprint. It fits perfectly below the big flatscreen on the wall in my media center—it’s actually much smaller than my cable box. It runs at a very cool temp with the power supply outside the media center, and the remote lets me sit back and watch streaming Netflix and forget I’m watching on the computer. The win 7 homegroup lets me play all my sound, pictures, and video from my desktop wirelessly. I’m considering getting another 1501 for the bedroom—it makes an HDTV connected only to cable seem like a waste.

Lukas 03/10 at 12:15 AM

Thank you for a great review. Can’t wait to have my own “box”.

Torben Juhl 04/09 at 03:32 AM

Thanks for a real good review.

I for my part are having som REAL problems with the performance. I use windowsmedia player, and record video to en external harddrive via USB.

First I constantly loose my tv signal - there can be 100 reasons for that; signal, tv tuner ect - have nothing to do with eee box.

Second: when using itunes and win mediaplayer there seems to be problems. The pc Freeces sometimes, and I have to restart. I get an error when restarting - going through the harddisk for an error.

Third: I can not play HD video in Itunes. But it runs fine when recorded from Win media player. On Itunes it freezes in picture and sound.

Do you have any of these experiances?

Tornado 04/09 at 09:08 PM

I can’t speak to your first concern about a TV tuner and recording video. But I do use iTunes and Media Center all the time without problems; I run video, sound, and the visualizers, burn and rip audio, burn DVDs and photo CDs. I also stream a lot of Netflix video at high quality and work with NEF raw Nikon files in very large sizes, all with no errors on the part of the ebox. I have a second ebox running in another room with the same results and can easily transfer files wirelessly between them.

The only real problem I had was the small hard drive partition that came from the factory. If you are trying to work with video and the ebox isn’t performing well, maybe it doesn’t have enough temporary disk space available on C:.

Jos 04/17 at 03:39 PM

Question to Tornado:

I like to follow your advice to reinstall Win7. Before I start doing this, I like know a bit more what you did.

Did you install it from scratch, cleaning up the whole disk?
How did you see the Nvidia coprocessor was not recognized and how did you solve this?
Where did you get the drivers from?
Did you need to install any other software to get the full functionality of the Asus back?

Sorry for the questionaire but with this additional info I think I dare to reinstall the Asus.

Regards

Tornado 04/18 at 02:35 AM

Jos:

To reinstall Win 7, I used an install disk for Win 7 Home Premium that I had previously downloaded from a retailer and installed on a desktop. When I began the setup on the ebox, Win setup asked if I wanted to repartition the drive, so I removed the large Data D: partition and reallocated all the unused space to C:. I also formatted the drive at the same time for a clean installation.

All the ebox drivers are availalble on the Asus web site (drivers only—not applications like the DVD player). Before reinstalling, I downloaded all the drivers to a CD, expecting many to be missing after the clean install. After the installation finished, I checked Device Manager for errors and found olny one unknown device. When I manually updated the device I directed windows to search the CD, and it automatically located the nVidia driver it needed to update. At that point the ebox was fully functional—better than the factory version if you consider the simplicity of working with one large HDD partition.

IMPORTANT note on activating the new win 7 installation: Windows could not activate itself with the product key from the ebox label over the internet because the machine and the install disk were not sold together. Windows directed me to call Microsoft, type in some code numbers given by an automated voice, and then I received a successful Win 7 activation message. On my second ebox, I used the same installation disk with the product key from the ebox label, called Microsoft for an activation code, and all is well.

I haven’t missed any of the Asus software that came preloaded, and in fact I think the computer runs better without it, but please understand all Asus applications will be deleted if you follow this method.

I called Asus support regarding the partitioning when I first got the ebox. They told me their engineers designed the setup this way on purpose in response to customer demand, but also said a utility might be available on their web site in the future that would allow you to swap C: and D:, a fix they’ve apparently supplied for other Asus systems in the past. Life is too short—I couldn’t wait.

Jos 04/18 at 03:29 AM

Tornado,

you are absolutely great, the way you quickly and accurately respond to this request.

Thanks man!

Sakari Sahamies 04/30 at 03:53 PM

Hello

Thanks for the great review! I am also wondering between Acer aspire revo 3610 and EB1501. One of my main concerns is that is it possible to get my Logitech Harmony One remote to work with EB1501. My remote is only IR based so i wonder does Asus have a similiar adapter as PS3 has? Or do i need to change my remote to RF version? And do you or anyone else have an idea that would it work even with the RF remote.

I tried to look information about this, but atm it seems that nobody else has tried this, which i find hard to believe. So that implicates that it does not work like that. But anyway i decided to ask from the expert. ;)

Gordon van Zuiden 05/02 at 12:52 AM

Has anyone had success getting an ATI Cable Card Tuner to work with this Asus?
My EB1501 says it is not digital cable ready and won’t playback any TV - giving me a video file error. Thoughts?

John B 05/06 at 12:20 PM

Just wondering what digital TV tuner can be used with this device? Can you use a dual usb tuner or is that taxing the system a bit?

Zoe @iPhone 4 Covers Blog 08/28 at 10:06 AM

I had the same question as John on the TV tuner? Please let me know.

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