ASUS Chromebox Available for Pre-Order Now, Shipping March 14, Not Fanless
by Anand Lal Shimpi on March 7, 2014 2:19 PM EST
Last month ASUS announced its NUC-sized Chromebox, a small form factor affordable desktop running Google's Chrome OS. The Chromebox will be available with three different CPU options, all based on Intel's Haswell architecture (dual-core Celeron 2955U, Core i3-4010U or Core i7-4600U). Contrary to what ASUS told us last month, none of these units are fanless.
The ASUS Chromebox will start at $179 for the dual-core 1.4GHz Celeron 2955U model. The very low price point includes 2GB of memory, a 16GB M.2 SSD, 100GB of Google Drive space, and dual-band 802.11n WiFi.
| ASUS Chromebox | ||||||
| ASUS Chromebox | Intel Haswell NUC | |||||
| OS Preloaded | Google Chrome OS | None | ||||
| CPU |
Intel Celeron 2955U (2C/2T 1.4GHz 2MB L3) Intel Core i3-4010U (2C/4T 1.7GHz 3MB L3) Intel Core i7-4600U (2C/4T 2.1/3.3GHz 4MB L3) |
Intel Core i3-4010U (2C/4T 1.7GHz 3MB L3) Intel Core i5-4250U (2C/4T 1.3/2.6GHz 3MB L3) |
||||
| GPU |
Celeron: Intel HD (200/1000MHz) Core i3: Intel HD 4400 (200/1000MHz) Core i7: Intel HD 4400 (200/1100MHz) |
Core i3: Intel HD 4400 (200/1000MHz) Core i5: Intel HD 5000 (200/1000MHz) |
||||
| Memory | 2GB/4GB configs, 2 x DDR3 SO-DIMM Slots | 2 x DDR3 SO-DIMM Slots | ||||
| Storage | 16GB M.2 SSD + 100GB Google Drive for 2 years | 1 x mini PCIe (full length) | ||||
| LAN | 10/100/1000 Ethernet | 10/100/1000 Ethernet | ||||
| Wireless | dual-band 802.11 a/b/g/n, BT 4.0 | 1 x mini PCIe (half length) | ||||
| External I/O |
SD card reader 4 x USB 3.0 1 x HDMI 1 x DisplayPort 1 x Audio Jack (mic-in/speaker out) |
4 x USB 3.0 1 x mini HDMI 1 x mini DisplayPort 1 x Audio Jack (mic-in/speaker out) |
||||
| Power Supply | 65W | 65W | ||||
| Dimensions | 4.88" x 4.88" x 1.65" | 4.59" x 4.41" x 1.36" | ||||
| Starting Price | $179 | $285 | ||||
The Chromebox is available for preorder now at Amazon, Newegg and Tiger Direct with systems shipping on March 14th. ASUS doesn't plan to do a preorder for the Core i3 version (also available on the 14th), and the Core i7 version won't be available in North America.
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Antiflash - Friday, March 7, 2014 - link
Can I install linux as in any other x86 machine or it is locked to chrome in anyway? I want to try Lunux again (Used Debian during like college 15 years ago) and this would be a cheap way to test some Linux flavors without messing with the computer I use for work.Ken_g6 - Friday, March 7, 2014 - link
I might be interested in installing Linux on this too, for use as a PVR to replace my very old laptop that can't actually play HD video.But for just trying out Linux, I suggest virtual machine software on your current PC, such as VirtualBox.
schizoide - Friday, March 7, 2014 - link
The Acer C720 chromebook costs $199, $20 more than this chromebox. Differences are that it comes with a battery (built-in UPS!) and a screen, but it lacks the ethernet port and analog audio-out. It does have HDMI-out.Like all chrome hardware, it is very easy to install linux on the C720, and I'm sure it'll be easy on the asus box too. I was thinking about using it as a HTPC, and you can of course just boot off a XBMC OpenELEC flash drive too.
schizoide - Friday, March 7, 2014 - link
My mistake, the C720 does have analog audio out! So really, it just lacks the ethernet port.schizoide - Friday, March 7, 2014 - link
Also, it is no longer necessary to leave ChromeOS and install linux to run XBMC! There's a new project called "crouton" that runs a full X-windows shell in a chroot environment inside of ChromeOS. Google it, comes up right away. Pretty sweet looking.Zinc64 - Friday, March 7, 2014 - link
First thing I thought when I saw this was "media box"...Definitely more power than an Android mini PC.
Demios - Friday, March 7, 2014 - link
I've found my Steam Machine. Steam OS is looking a bit more viable for me.Ken_g6 - Friday, March 7, 2014 - link
Steam on this? It doesn't even have discrete graphics. What makes you think this would be at all useful for Steam?Guspaz - Friday, March 7, 2014 - link
Streaming. Intel's hardware video acceleration is excellent, and Demios is clearly considering putting a cheap box running SteamOS in front of his or her TV that can stream from a more powerful desktop.The problem is that the hardware in this thing is still overkill for that purpose. That is to say that while it might be the cheapest option for a streaming SteamOS box today, the hardware is still overkill for the requirements (which are good low-latency video decoding as well as sufficient GPU performance for a smoothly animated UI). So it's not the cheapest possible configuration for that use case.
Coup27 - Friday, March 7, 2014 - link
Can somebody please explain the purpose of having a Chromebook with an i7 CPU?