Asus attacks desktop market
TAIWANESE LAPTOP specialist Asus is making waves in the desktop market with its latest release first spotted by the INQUIRER last month.
Hailed in some quarters as the smallest ever PC with full HD 1080p graphics capability on an embedded card, the Essentio CS5110 boasts some pretty impressive specs – and some desktop firsts – in a tiny, shiny shell.
With a Bluray drive on board, and proper 1080p HDMI output, hooked up to a suitable TV, combined with full optical 7.1 surround, this should make gaming and movies a pleasure.
Asus also tells us that this little black box should be pretty cool and quiet, too as it has the world's first 2-in-1 thermal module which insulates heat from from the cooling fan. Operational noise levels (with no drive clanking away) are reported to be 23.9dB.
Wireless duties are performed in both 802.11n and Bluetooth flavours and it has a smart video engine which constantly evaluates what's being thrown at your screen and enhances it to your personal preferences.
We'll be running a full hands-on review soon but, in the meantime, here's the full spec sheet if that sort of thing floats your boat:
Chipset
NB: G35
SB: ICH8
CPU
Intel Core2 Duo/Pentium Dual-Core/Pentium 4/Celeron D
800~1333 MHz FSB
Memory
DDR2 800, Dual Channel
So-DIMM Slot: 2
Support max. 4GB
ODD
Slim slot-in Blu-ray SuperMulti or DVD SuperMulti
HDD
3.5" 250G~1TB SATAII
Graphics
MXM MN8600M GT 256M
AUDIO
Azalia 7.1 Sounds
S/PDIF out (Optical)
LAN
1000/100/10 Mbps
WiFi
802.11b/g/n
Bluetooth
Bluetooth 2.0+EDR (Enhanced Data Rate)
IR Receiver
Built-in
Front IO
1 x 1394 (4pin)
1 x 10-in-1 Card Reader
1 x Headphone
1 x Microphone
2 x USB 2.0
Rear IO
1 x HDMI
1 x VGA
1 x DC Power in
1 x Line-In/Line-Out(Front L/R)/Mic-in
1 x Back Surround LR/Side Surround LR/Center LFE
1 x SPDIF out (Optical)
1 x RJ45 LAN
4 x USB2.0
OS
Vista Home Premium
Dimension (mm)
200mm (D) X 290mm (H) X 80mm(W)
Weight
3.4 kg
Power
120W
Accessory
1 x Slim Multimedia Keyboard/Mouse
1 x Vista MCE remote controller(IR)
1 x HDMI to DVI adapter
1 x Anti-Slip Pad
L'Inq
Asus
Share this:
Business Intelligence Software
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Enterprise Accounting Software
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
Enterprise Systems Management
look like a playstation 3 O_O
Does this asus motherboard feature their EPU power supply monitoring tech?
Rather wait for the G45 version (if it works) than the G35+8600GT. It would be cheaper, consume less power, and run cooler.
It's basically just the Asus C90S laptop in a different form factor. MXM graphics and SO-DIMM says it all.
And lot's of 'em for DVB-C and DVB-S/S2 Cards?? Me thinks this could be a badarse MythTV Player!!
Will any Linux run on this hardware? Asus had good start with purpose-built Linux eeePC and now there just is Vista :(
Sorry, no one will be playing recent games as long as the graphics processor is a "MXM MN8600M GT 256M". Sure maybe that'll play games from two years ago just fine, but that's where it starts and ends.
Is there a standard-sized motherboard in there or is the whole thing custom? I'm thinking of people who might want to upgrade the board but still like to keep the nice small case.
"this should make gaming and movies a pleasure" Watching movies would be a pleasure yes, but I don't think about gaming. It'll be more a pleasure if this computer packs a 780G plus any comparable X2 processor, unless you can partner 780G with a Core 2. Not.