4W is tablet territory (that is the power consumption of the SoC alone, not counting other systems) with peaks to 8W according to anandtech "The ARM vs x86 Wars Have Begun" article, so that's definitely passive. Seeing how much more space and volume you have here, 15W sounds very doable to me.
Intel lists all 3 CPUs offered as 15W models. You could passively cool them; but would need a larger enclosure because of the size of the heat sink (IIRC I've seen passively cooled Via mITX boards at this power level in the past). Otherwise, you'd need to drop down from a Haswell based CPU to Baytrail.
zero surprise it's not fanless... was actually surprised Anand reported it was.. even when Asus confirmed... after all, if Asus could make a fanless box with a haswell 15W cpu, in a tiny formfactor... then there would be tons of fanless ultrabooks and a fanless macbook air.
AFAIK to be fanless with a heasink / airflow solution that's basically an ultrabook platform, the TDP needs to be down near 5W, is that right?
Eh, not quite that low in a box like this where you could potentially put a tall-ish heatsink. I'd say around 10W would be possible here with passive cooling, maybe as much as 15W.
The Akasa Newton fanless NUC case does pretty well without being bigger than the standard NUC. (Obviously with bigger heatsinks you can cool even significantly hotter components fanlessly.) But it does get hot to the touch and this is even more relevant for laptops. Then there's also some extra weight and cost...
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.
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.
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.
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.
Unless you're compiling code or rendering video or whatever, the same purpose as having a core i7 CPU on your normal computer. It makes it go faster (but not so you'd really notice.)
Most peoples' use cases would be perfectly suited with a celeron or maybe i3. Atoms are still a smidgen slow for day to day use, but the new Bay Trail atoms are pretty close. You only need faster CPUs if you're a content creator. Even video games don't need more than a low-end i3; vast majority of games are GPU constrained, not CPU.
I fully understand the difference between CPU's on Windows or OSX, but the whole point is ChromeOS is you have Chrome, and that's it. You are limited to what you can do inside a web browser. If all you are doing is using a browser, there's no difference between a Pentium or an i7.
Nobody using ChromeOS will be doing rendering video, compiling code, using AutoCAD yada yada so still don't get the benefit at all.
There is PNaCl for native code and there is WebGL and asm.js for other heavy, fast content. While the use cases aren't there now, they very well could appear.
I wish my 28w has well macbook pro was faster... Even when running exclusively a web client. Web browsing and web apps can be heavy... Especially with lots of tabs.
Last month Asus told us these systems would be fanless, but the company made a last-minute change and included a fan due to lack of ambient temperature control. I’m told the fan won’t need to operate very often, and it will reportedly run quietly and shut off quickly when it does power up. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to test that out for myself soon. http://num.to/372772529020
The Chromebox is ideal for scenarios like call centers. Like the Chromebook, Chromeboxes start up fast and are easy to manage and use.
There are also solutions that make Chromeboxes more relevant to the enterprise by allowing users to access Windows and corporate applications. Ericom's AccessNow HTML5 RDP solution enables Chromebox users to connect to any RDP host, including virtual desktops and Terminal Server, and run their Windows applications and desktops in the Chrome browser tab.
There's nothing to install on the Chromebox, as AccessNow runs within the Chrome browser, which reduces hassles for IT. The user simply connects to the URL given him by the IT admin, logs in and then connects to their applications or virtual desktop.
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DARBYOTHRULL - Friday, March 7, 2014 - link
I wonder how easy it is to jailbreak.Death666Angel - Friday, March 7, 2014 - link
4W is tablet territory (that is the power consumption of the SoC alone, not counting other systems) with peaks to 8W according to anandtech "The ARM vs x86 Wars Have Begun" article, so that's definitely passive. Seeing how much more space and volume you have here, 15W sounds very doable to me.Death666Angel - Friday, March 7, 2014 - link
Damn, meant to reply to 8steve8.DanNeely - Friday, March 7, 2014 - link
Intel lists all 3 CPUs offered as 15W models. You could passively cool them; but would need a larger enclosure because of the size of the heat sink (IIRC I've seen passively cooled Via mITX boards at this power level in the past). Otherwise, you'd need to drop down from a Haswell based CPU to Baytrail.http://ark.intel.com/products/75608/
http://ark.intel.com/products/75107/
http://ark.intel.com/products/76616/
extide - Friday, March 7, 2014 - link
All you have to do is enable developer mode, which doesn't require any "hacking".8steve8 - Friday, March 7, 2014 - link
zero surprise it's not fanless... was actually surprised Anand reported it was.. even when Asus confirmed... after all, if Asus could make a fanless box with a haswell 15W cpu, in a tiny formfactor... then there would be tons of fanless ultrabooks and a fanless macbook air.AFAIK to be fanless with a heasink / airflow solution that's basically an ultrabook platform, the TDP needs to be down near 5W, is that right?
smartypnt4 - Friday, March 7, 2014 - link
Eh, not quite that low in a box like this where you could potentially put a tall-ish heatsink. I'd say around 10W would be possible here with passive cooling, maybe as much as 15W.FanlessTech - Friday, March 7, 2014 - link
Check out the coolers from the 10W Bay Trail motherboards. None of them could fit inside this thing.A cooler inside would also need air vents everywhere, like the upcoming fanless Zotac Nano:
http://img.clubic.com/07061866-photo-zotac-c-serie...
Very disappointed by Asus PR.
thewhat - Friday, March 7, 2014 - link
The Akasa Newton fanless NUC case does pretty well without being bigger than the standard NUC.(Obviously with bigger heatsinks you can cool even significantly hotter components fanlessly.)
But it does get hot to the touch and this is even more relevant for laptops. Then there's also some extra weight and cost...
FanlessTech - Friday, March 7, 2014 - link
The Akasa Newton is significantly bigger than the original NUC ;)http://oi60.tinypic.com/24nr41e.jpg
And it's still not big enough in my books.
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?schizoide - Friday, March 7, 2014 - link
Unless you're compiling code or rendering video or whatever, the same purpose as having a core i7 CPU on your normal computer. It makes it go faster (but not so you'd really notice.)Most peoples' use cases would be perfectly suited with a celeron or maybe i3. Atoms are still a smidgen slow for day to day use, but the new Bay Trail atoms are pretty close. You only need faster CPUs if you're a content creator. Even video games don't need more than a low-end i3; vast majority of games are GPU constrained, not CPU.
Coup27 - Friday, March 7, 2014 - link
I fully understand the difference between CPU's on Windows or OSX, but the whole point is ChromeOS is you have Chrome, and that's it. You are limited to what you can do inside a web browser. If all you are doing is using a browser, there's no difference between a Pentium or an i7.Nobody using ChromeOS will be doing rendering video, compiling code, using AutoCAD yada yada so still don't get the benefit at all.
lmcd - Friday, March 7, 2014 - link
There is PNaCl for native code and there is WebGL and asm.js for other heavy, fast content. While the use cases aren't there now, they very well could appear.vanotter - Saturday, March 8, 2014 - link
There are certainly use cases today that require horsepower. I can use 100% of my desktop i7 in a single tab in Chrome. It all depends on what you do.8steve8 - Friday, March 7, 2014 - link
I wish my 28w has well macbook pro was faster... Even when running exclusively a web client. Web browsing and web apps can be heavy... Especially with lots of tabs.Krysto - Friday, March 7, 2014 - link
That's what you get for going with a crappy Celeron instead of ARM.schizoide - Friday, March 7, 2014 - link
This is a haswell celeron. It is much faster than any ARM SoC available today.Dentons - Friday, March 7, 2014 - link
Yes, the Haswell Celerons are impressive bits of silicon, especially the quad-core BayTrails. Though these boxes all have dual core variants.It's surprising that Intel's marketing group allowed so useful a chip to be sold for so little. It suggests ARM really has Intel worried.
SusanJLopez - Friday, March 7, 2014 - link
Last month Asus told us these systems would be fanless, but the company made a last-minute change and included a fan due to lack of ambient temperature control. I’m told the fan won’t need to operate very often, and it will reportedly run quietly and shut off quickly when it does power up. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to test that out for myself soon. http://num.to/372772529020Jeffspears - Friday, March 7, 2014 - link
Does it support HDMI-CEC?? I am guessing not since its Intel graphicsAikouka - Friday, March 7, 2014 - link
Intel's Haswell NUCs have integrated Intel graphics and they support HDMI-CEC via the Custom Solutions header.bossmoogle - Saturday, March 8, 2014 - link
How would this compare to an AMD AM1 system?ECIT - Monday, March 10, 2014 - link
The Chromebox is ideal for scenarios like call centers. Like the Chromebook, Chromeboxes start up fast and are easy to manage and use.There are also solutions that make Chromeboxes more relevant to the enterprise by allowing users to access Windows and corporate applications. Ericom's AccessNow HTML5 RDP solution enables Chromebox users to connect to any RDP host, including virtual desktops and Terminal Server, and run their Windows applications and desktops in the Chrome browser tab.
There's nothing to install on the Chromebox, as AccessNow runs within the Chrome browser, which reduces hassles for IT. The user simply connects to the URL given him by the IT admin, logs in and then connects to their applications or virtual desktop.
For an online demo, open your Chrome browser and visit:
http://www.ericom.com/demo_AccessNow.asp?URL_ID=70...
Please note that I work for Ericom.