NVIDIA hasn't confirmed its work on a nettop platform for Intel's Atom processor. It has indicated that the Atom market is interesting, while we have also been hearing rumors that it is actually working on two new Atom chipsets. The first pictures of what looks like a nettop from NVIDIA has been posted and we even get a view of the actual board, housed inside a mini-PC that indeed looks like an NVIDIA creation.

The computer is said to be a reference design of NVIDIA's nettop platform and we neither believe or hope that any will use this exact design. The connectors are spread around the sides of the case in what seems likea real hole orgy.The most important is what we find inside the case though, a single-chip chipset with MCH, GPU and ICH functions. This reference design supports Intel's Atom 230 and dual-core Atom 330 processors, one SO-DIMM DDR3 module, USB 2.0 ports, SATA ports, Gigabit LAN and one DVI-I output, located on the back.
All this has been squeezed onto a motherboard of the Pico ITX format measuring only 7x10cm. Something that really opens up for even slimmer and better designed nettops.

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.

It seems that buying an Eee Box system, ASUS' desktop version of the highly successful Eee PC netbook, is like playing the Russian roulette. This is because there's a high probability that your own Eee Box system could ship with a virus or a malware, as a bonus from the Taiwanese manufacturer. The news comes from the company itself which, in a recent letter, has warned customers that its recently released Eee Box nettop could come with a virus.
According to the details made available, the virus is located on the hard drive's partition D and, once the user turns on the system, it starts copying itself to the main C drive, or to any other removable drives or USB drives. The company hasn't specifically detailed under what circumstances the virus, which is called recycled.exe, has found its way onto the company's new nettop computer system. However, according to the official statement, the virus should only be featured on the models from Japan, where the nettop was introduced last week.With all that, UK-based Register, which has picked up on the story, reports that their review unit, under testing this week, also came with the W32/Taterf worm, aka W32.Gammima.AG or kavo.exe, which is basically a malware that sniffs out online gaming usernames and passwords. It appears, however, that the infection was easily removed by Microsoft's most recent malware removal tool update.
The Eee Box is seen as the desktop sibling of the successful Eee PC netbook, which brings a significant contribution to the company's overall revenue. It features the same Atom N270 processor, running at 1.6GHz, and comes with 1GB of RAM memory, just enough to enable a decent experience of a Windows XP operating system. The nettop is available in both black and white color options, and is set to deliver 80GB of storage space on a 2.5-inch hard drive.