Would you buy EEEbox for MD (199€)?

[alx2k]

I was yesterday at "Mediamarkt" (for those not living in europe, it's a brand selling electronic devices, music, etc...), and I saw the Asus eeebox b202 at 199€.

I thought, it was quite cheap but I decided to ask first how it runs as MD, and which resolution would you recommend.

Would you buy it, or would you wait for ION to come out?

BTW, I saw it in Zaragoza, Spain; I don't know if mediamarkt  offers are the same in every country in Europe, or even in all the shops in the same country, but maybe this helps someone thinking about buying a new md in Europe.

[totallymaxed]

I was yesterday at "Mediamarkt" (for those not living in europe, it's a brand selling electronic devices, music, etc...), and I saw the Asus eeebox b202 at 199€.

I thought, it was quite cheap but I decided to ask first how it runs as MD, and which resolution would you recommend.

Would you buy it, or would you wait for ION to come out?

BTW, I saw it in Zaragoza, Spain; I don't know if mediamarkt  offers are the same in every country in Europe, or even in all the shops in the same country, but maybe this helps someone thinking about buying a new md in Europe.

There are several ASUS Eee Box models now;

- Eee Box B202 (original model with ATOM270, i945 chipset & GMA950 GPU)
- Eee Box B206 (new model with ATOM270 & ATI Radion HD3450 GPU, Bluetooth, Wireless Kbd/Mouse)

I would imagine the unit you saw was a B202 and 199€ is pretty good price. The Eee Box B202 is a good MD and works well at upto 720p with SD resolution MPEG2 video content. The B206 is technically more capable because of its ATI GPU, HDMI out etc and will cost approx. 80€ more. Because the B206 has an ATI GPU it is not currently PnP out of the box... but in our tests it is performing very nicely in UI2 + Overlay once drivers and xorg have been tweaked etc.

So I would say you could do a lot worse than choose the B202...and who knows when the Ion will appear...

All the best

Andrew

[b4rney]

I agree with Andrew. I have been running an Asus B202 as an MD and it is proving very stable. At that price it is very good value.

I recommend it.
Barney

[alx9r]

I just picked one up for $335.92 CAD which is 201.68 € according to google.  Once I get it working I'll post my setup.

[totallymaxed]

I just picked one up for $335.92 CAD which is 201.68 € according to google.  Once I get it working I'll post my setup.

You can look at these Wiki articles on what you need to do to get the Eee Box B202 working;

http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/ASUS_eee_box_b202_setup

All the best

Andrew

//

[alx9r]

You can look at these Wiki articles on what you need to do to get the Eee Box B202 working;

Thanks Andrew, I've been up to my eyeballs in those articles for about a day now.

Alex

[patmankn]

Alx9r.... where the hell to you live, that you can get a b202 for just 200 bucks (cheapest one on geizhals.at is about 289€? Grab one for me too ;O)
Good look with the your new toy..

Pat

[alx9r]

Alx9r.... where the hell to you live, that you can get a b202 for just 200 bucks

Canada.  price was $335 CAD (see my earlier post).

[Viking]

Hallo Andrew,

but in our tests it is performing very nicely in UI2 + Overlay once drivers and xorg have been tweaked etc.

What tweaking can help here ? Could you please post what you did.
The last time I tested the UI2 overlay was VERY slow - and not usable. With UI1 it would work.

My GA-MA78GM-S2H (AMD 780G chip) also has an onboard ATI videocard and maybe I could get that running.

Greetings
Viking

[patmankn]

Alx9r.... where the hell to you live, that you can get a b202 for just 200 bucks

Canada.  price was $335 CAD (see my earlier post).

Sorry alx9r, i meant which "mediamarkt" alx2k went to... i just got confused with your alx* ;O)

[alx2k]

Well, looks like 2 different posters with so similar nickname participate on this topic  

I must say thanks to your comments I bought the b202 on mediamarkt this afternoon.

I already configured the windows xp that comes on it, and I'll try to configure linuxmce tomorrow... (thanks for the wiki link  )

About your post patmankn, I belive that alx9r got his b202 in Canada for 335,92 CAD, which converts to 201,68€.

As I said on my first post, I found the b202 at 199,99 € on mediamarkt.

[alx2k]

Zaragoza, Spain.

But I don't know if they have the same offers all across Europe.

[patmankn]

alx2k, thanks for the info. I just forgot, that mediamarkt acts europe wide, not just in old germany. Spain is a little bit too far away... still, good luck! ;O)

Pat

P.s. maybe we get this offer here as well... some time ;O)

[totallymaxed]

Hallo Andrew,

but in our tests it is performing very nicely in UI2 + Overlay once drivers and xorg have been tweaked etc.

What tweaking can help here ? Could you please post what you did.
The last time I tested the UI2 overlay was VERY slow - and not usable. With UI1 it would work.

My GA-MA78GM-S2H (AMD 780G chip) also has an onboard ATI videocard and maybe I could get that running.

Greetings
Viking

Well we update to the current fglrx driver and thats about it...

I cant access the Core that our ATI MD's are booted currently from home tonight...but on Monday i will post the xorg.conf from one of our HD3450 based MD's and also the version of the ATI driver we are using.

All the best

Andrew

PS remind me on Monday if i have not posted anything here ;-)

[pigdog]

Hi,

I've been waiting for information on the Acer Hornet.

Rumours are HDMI and cheap.

Suppose to have (rumours again) information released this month but don't quote me.