Loading movies onto Asus' latest Eee Box home theater PC will be a breeze thanks to the inclusion of USB 3.0.
The EB1501U will have two USB 3.0 jacks on its front face, reports Electronista. It runs on a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom processor with the NVidia ION platform for high-definition graphics and gaming.
Other specs include 2 GB of RAM, a 250 GB hard drive, a DVD burner, HDMI and VGA output, a 5-in-1 card reader and six total USB ports. Options for 4 GB of RAM and a 320 GB hard drive are available. The operating system is Windows 7 Home Premium.
Now, the question is, what do you do with a net-top or home theater PC that has USB 3.0? Sure, the standard transfers data up to 10 times faster than USB 2.0, but there still isn't much supporting hardware available. USB 3.0 hard drives are slowly emerging, from companies including Buffalo, Western Digital and Seagate. If you had all your movies and photos stored on a hard drive, USB 3.0 would allow you to access them quickly on Asus' Eee Box. You might also want to keep an eye out for Point Grey's USB 3.0 camera, which will supposedly be able to capture 1080p video and transfer it to a supporting device for immediate playback.
Really, though, the EB1501U's USB 3.0 feature isn't so much a main attraction as it is future-proofing. Some day, all devices will be USB 3.0, and all the gadgets you own will be able to transfer quickly amongst themselves. Asus is leading the charge with USB 3.0 computers, as is HP, and hopefully other manufacturers will follow.
