Asus, more famously known as maker of Eee PC netbooks, has spruced up its Eee Box line up with the addition of a Celeron-based B203.

The new Celeron-based B203 Nettop is expected not to have more changes as compared to its successor. The B203 features a budget-minded Celeron 220 CPU instead of the Intel Atom, has reworked hard drive options with increased storage capacity, offering a 120GB and 160GB version in addition to the 80GB offered in previous versions.

The B203 comes with four USB ports, a flash card reader, a DVIoutput, and Ethernet and Wi-Fi connectivity. The Nettop runs Windows XP Home, and Windows Vista.

No details on pricing are yet revealed on the website.


Still the market watchers expect that it could undergo processor change and that can lower the price of the Eee Box from $350 to $240. It will thus allow the small form-factor desktop to better compete with similarly low-cost desktops and laptops.

According to the latest reports on the Web, Intel added a few more CPUs to its mainstream and value lineups, all based on previous architectures from the company, and not on the newly released Nehalem. The additions include the Core 2 Quad Q8300, the Pentium Dual Core E5300 and the Celeron Dual Core E1500 processors. The Q8300 chip has been discussed already, so we'll detail the other parts that the Santa Clara chip maker has released for users.

The Intel Pentium Dual Core E5300 CPU is based on the company's Wolfdale-2M, and features 2 MB of L2 cache and a clock speed of 2.60 GHz (13.0 * 200 MHz), while coming with an FSB of 800 MHz. The price of this part will be set at $86, taking the place of the maker's E5200 chip. The Celeron Dual Core E1500 chip came to the market to steal the crown of the Celeron series. The CPU is clocked at 2.20 GHz and an L2 cache of 512 KB. Based on the older 65nm Allendale core, this chip costs $53.In related news about the chip manufacturer, we learn that its Havendale processor will be delayed until the first quarter of 2010. The chip, as said before, will include a CPU and a GPU, and it has been suggested that the company is having troubles with the implementation of the two, which caused the delay.

Intel has officially announced that the “Havendale schedule is being adjusted to intercept Q1’2010 retail and business cycles with production beginning in Q4’09.” The news site Fudzilla says that the company's official line hides the fact that it won't be able to deliver the chip on time.

The same source also says that bit OEMs should announce systems based on Havendale at CES that year, while starting the shipments a little later. Intel's Lynnfield chip, originally slated for release at the same time with Havendale, should arrive in Q4 2009.

Intel is rolling out its first dual-core Celeron this month. The chip is known as the Celeron E1200, and it runs at 1.6GHz with 512KB of unified L2 cache and an 800MHz front-side bus. Those specifications are definitely not bad for a Celeron, but according to DigiTimes, Intel has an even faster model in store for the second quarter of this year.

DigiTimes says Intel plans to launch a dual-core Celeron E1400 clocked at a speedy 2GHz in Q2. Like its predecessor, the new chip will pack 512KB of L2 cache and feature an 800MHz FSB. The chip will be based on Intel's 65nm process technology, and it will have a 65W thermal rating—much like that of similarly clocked Core 2 Duos. Pricing for the Celeron E1400 will reportedly be just $53 in thousand-unit quantities. And here is the rest of it.