ASUS EB1505-B036M Desktop (Discontinued by Manufacturer)

Ordered this particular one because it was loaded with Windows 7 Pro. Arrived with Windows 8. And that's CRAP!!!, 8 SUCKS and my wife hates it. This could have great with 7, I WANTED 7

This poor little guy gets a lot of bad reviews at various sites because of one thing: Windows 8. Yes, Windows 8 is terrible, upgrading to the free Windows 8.1 is even more terrible. That said, I'm reviewing this as a *computer* not reviewing WIndows 8. Every new computer with Windows 8 is going to have the poor experience of Windows 8. As a computer this thing has exceeded my expectations. I bought it to replace an aging Dell we have been using as a Media Center PC in our bedroom. The Dell had a 3ghz Pentium 4 chip in it and just struggled to do really anything. Couldn't stream live TV from our HD HomeRun cablecard tuner to save it's life. Replaced it with this 1ghz, yes 1ghz ASUS mini PC and albeit much slower on paper, it performs flawlessly. It's primary job is to run Windows Media Center and play uncompressed DVDs that are on our main media center PC in the living room. It's streaming these uncompressed DVDs over wifi, not a wired connection. It also streams full HD live TV over wifi, as well as full HD recorded TV shows over wifi. Never skips, buffers, etc. In addition to doing what we bought it for really well it is also quite snappy as a computer. Yes, Windows 8 is terrible, but never does it hang or lag trying to perform tasks. It's one of the better responding computers I've used in a while actually. As a bonus it comes with a *wireless* mouse and keyboard (albeit the keyboard isn't awesome) AND a full blown Media Center remote control. One caveat, however, is that because this comes with Windows 8, not Windows 8 Pro you will have to pay some money to Microsoft to get actual Media Center. It's $100 to upgrade it to Pro or $9.99 to add on Media Center if you already have a license for Pro. Luckily I had a spare license for both from a different system I decommissioned. This doesn't mean this won't make a great media center PC without the upgrades though. The included remote will work with the free XBMC (now Kodi) just fine. The addition of a real DVD player built in is even better. Anyway, I would highly recommend this little computer for someone who needs a media center or just a simple desktop computer.

Purchased it as a secondary station for my business. So far it's doing everything it's supposed to and takes up way less space than the old tower!