Asus Chromebox Review

ASUS’ first desktop Chrome OS device is simply called the Chromebox. From a distance it looks like a somewhat larger Intel NUC. The low profile, square form factor has become the shape of choice for bringing Ultrabook CPUs to desktops. ASUS’ take on the design is matte plastic on all faces, with a glossy plastic trim around the top. There’s a single white LED above the power button on the unit. Google’s Chrome logo and brand integrate nicely on the top of the box. Google appears to be learning from the mistakes of its predecessors - logos are ok, as long as they don’t clutter up the design.

More expensive materials would be nice but for $179, I’m not complaining. In a world where small dimensions usually come at a premium, ASUS and Google continue the Chrome OS trend of delivering a better than expected experience at a given price point.

ASUS Chromebox Comparison ASUS Chromebox vs. Intel Haswell NUC

ASUS Chromebox
	ASUS Chromebox	Intel Haswell NUC
OS Preloaded	Google Chrome OS	None
CPU	Intel Celeron 2955U (2C/2T 1.4GHz 2MB L3) Intel Core i3-4010U (2C/4T 1.7GHz 3MB L3) Intel Core i7-4600U (2C/4T 2.1/3.3GHz 4MB L3)	Intel Core i3-4010U (2C/4T 1.7GHz 3MB L3) Intel Core i5-4250U (2C/4T 1.3/2.6GHz 3MB L3)
GPU	Celeron: Intel HD (200/1000MHz) Core i3: Intel HD 4400 (200/1000MHz) Core i7: Intel HD 4400 (200/1100MHz)	Core i3: Intel HD 4400 (200/1000MHz) Core i5: Intel HD 5000 (200/1000MHz)
Memory	2GB/4GB configs, 2 x DDR3 SO-DIMM Slots	2 x DDR3 SO-DIMM Slots
Storage	16GB M.2 SSD + 100GB Google Drive for 2 years	1 x mini PCIe (full length)
LAN	10/100/1000 Ethernet	10/100/1000 Ethernet
Wireless	dual-band 802.11 a/b/g/n, BT 4.0	1 x mini PCIe (half length)
External I/O	SD card reader 4 x USB 3.0 1 x HDMI 1 x DisplayPort 1 x Audio Jack (mic-in/speaker out)	4 x USB 3.0 1 x mini HDMI 1 x mini DisplayPort 1 x Audio Jack (mic-in/speaker out)
Power Supply	65W	65W
Dimensions	4.88" x 4.88" x 1.65"	4.59" x 4.41" x 1.36"
Starting Price	$179	$285

The Chromebox has four USB 3.0 ports. Two are located on the front, and two more around back. On the back side there’s also a Gigabit Ethernet port, DisplayPort and HDMI outputs as well as a 1/8" audio out.

There’s an SD card reader on the left side of the unit, along with a Kensington security slot. The recovery switch is just above the security slot. To enter recovery mode use a pin or paperclip to keep the switch pressed down while powering up the unit. Hit CTRL+D to boot into dev mode once at the recovery screen.

Despite ASUS’ initial claims that its Chromebox would be fanless, there is a single fan inside the machine. Air is brought in through the bottom and vented through the back of the chassis. Fan noise is minimal, and it is entirely possible to run the machine without the fan spinning up but open up enough tabs and you’ll find the fan humming away all the time. My review unit was a development unit, which ASUS claims was a bit louder than final retail units will be. Given the low performance requirements of Chrome OS and the low thermal footprint of the Haswell based Celeron inside, noise isn’t an issue with the ASUS Chromebox.

As with anything this size, the power supply is external. In this case ASUS uses an AC adapter that looks a lot like what you get with one of its Ultrabooks. The external power supply can deliver up to 65W, although I never saw power consumption above 15W.
Hardware & Configurations

The Chromebox will be available in three different configurations. Each configuration is a fully functional PC with DRAM, storage and WiFi already configured. Chrome OS comes preloaded on all systems.

In the US you’ll only find the Celeron 2955U and Core i3 models. ASUS sampled me the $179 Celeron 2955U but upgraded to 4GB of RAM instead of the default 2GB.

ASUS Chromebox Configurations
	Chromebox-M004U	Chromebox-M025U	Chromebox-M020U
OS Preloaded	Google Chrome OS	Google Chrome OS	Google Chrome OS
CPU	Intel Celeron 2955U (2C/2T 1.4GHz 2MB L3)	Intel Core i3-4010U (2C/4T 1.7GHz 3MB L3)	Intel Core i7-4600U (2C/4T 2.1/3.3GHz 4MB L3)
GPU	Intel HD (200/1000MHz)	Intel HD 4400 (200/1000MHz) 4K Video Support	Intel HD 4400 (200/1000MHz) 4K Video Support
Memory	1 x 2GB DDR3-1600	1 x 4GB DDR3-1600	2 x 2GB DDR3-1600
Storage	16GB M.2 SSD + 100GB Google Drive for 2 years	16GB M.2 SSD + 100GB Google Drive for 2 years	16GB M.2 SSD + 100GB Google Drive for 2 years
LAN	10/100/1000 Ethernet	10/100/1000 Ethernet	10/100/1000 Ethernet
Wireless	dual-band 802.11 a/b/g/n, BT 4.0	dual-band 802.11 a/b/g/n, BT 4.0	dual-band 802.11 a/b/g/n, BT 4.0
External I/O	SD card reader 4 x USB 3.0 1 x HDMI 1 x DisplayPort 1 x Audio Jack (mic-in/speaker out)	SD card reader 4 x USB 3.0 1 x HDMI 1 x DisplayPort 1 x Audio Jack (mic-in/speaker out)	SD card reader 4 x USB 3.0 1 x HDMI 1 x DisplayPort 1 x Audio Jack (mic-in/speaker out)
Power Supply	65W	65W	65W
Dimensions	4.88" x 4.88" x 1.65"	4.88" x 4.88" x 1.65"	4.88" x 4.88" x 1.65"
MSRP	$179	$369	?

The Core i3 model ships with an ASUS Chromebox wireless keyboard and mouse (available for $50 separately). The Core i7 model, which isn't available in the US, features a remote control with QWERTY keyboard, external speaker and 1080p webcam.

The $179 configuration is clearly the sweet spot for ASUS’ Chromebox. While the Core i3 model does increase memory capacity and improves performance, unless you have a real need for 4K video out the savings offered by the entry level Celeron model are hard to beat.

Storage

One of the biggest problems with entry level PCs is they ship with a mechanical hard drive rather than solid state storage. The result is very high latency IO and a user experience that can be substantially worse than using a smartphone or tablet when it comes to launching apps. Many Chrome OS devices instead opt for shipping higher performance eMMC solutions or low end SSDs; ASUS’ Chromebox is no exception. All ASUS Chromebox models ship with a 16GB SanDisk U110 M.2 (SATA) SSD. ASUS isn’t multi-sourcing the drives, this should be the only thing you find if you crack open one of the boxes.

The Chromebox ships with an SD card reader and four USB 3.0 ports so you can obviously get media onto the device, there’s just not much space to store it. Also keep in mind that as with (almost) all SSDs you’ll want to keep a substantial amount of free space on the drive to avoid ruining the user experience. In the case of the U110 you have around 12GB free by default, and I wouldn’t drop below 3GB - 4GB free on the drive.

Given the small size of the internal SSD, I don’t expect we’ll see a lot of users pulling large files off of the drive. As there’s no support for network share access under Chrome OS, if you want to play an offline video you’ll have to either stream it off an attached USB/SD card or copy it locally from external storage. Although the Chromebox features four USB 3.0 ports, I measured max sequential write speed at around 42MB/s (copying from a USB 3.0 Patriot Supersonic Magnum SSD). I suspect we’re limited by the write speed to the single NAND device (likely two NAND die) on the U110.

All Chromebox owners receive 100GB of free Google Drive space for 2 years - an attempt to offset the limited local storage.

Memory

ASUS offers three different configurations of the Chromebox. The entry level $179 configuration ships with a single 2GB DDR3-1600 SO-DIMM. Even the upgraded Core i3 model ($369) only ships with a single 4GB DDR3-1600 SO-DIMM. It’s only the fully upgraded Chromebox M020U (Chrome for Meetings) that ships with two SO-DIMMs (2 x 2GB).

ASUS shipped me the $179 system upgraded with two 2GB DDR3-1600 SO-DIMMs (4GB total up from the 2GB base). For light usage I didn’t see DRAM usage exceed 2GB, however when I really started heavy multitasking with the machine I can see 2GB being a bit of a limit. I’m pretty confident that the $179 configuration will make for a good system as is, however it likely wouldn’t hurt to buy another 2GB SO-DIMM ($20 - $25).

Inside the ASUS Chromebox

Like the NUC, it's pretty easy to get inside the Chromebox. Peel off the four rubber feet underneath the box to reveal the four Phillips head screws. Remove the screws and use one of the screw holes to provide leverage to pop the bottom off and you're in.

ASUS' motherboard is slightly rectangular (11.25cm x 10cm) compared to the more square Intel NUC form factor (10cm x 10cm).

There are no real surprises on the inside. The Chromebox features two DDR3 SO-DIMM slots, an M.2 SATA port and a mini-PCIe both of which come populated from the factory.

via AnandTech

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Ubuntu on $199 Acer's C7 Chromebook

Maybe you think the price of Acer's new $199 C7 Chromebook is appealing and that the hardware doesn't look bad, but you're a little worried about using Chrome OS to get your work done. Or maybe you're looking for a small, cheap laptop to run Ubuntu, and you're not really interested in buying a computer running a Windows license you'll never use. If either of those sentences describe you and you aren't afraid of the command line, it's actually pretty easy to convert the cheapest Chromebook yet into a nice little Linux laptop.

Because Chromebooks use a special BIOS and bootloader that is distinct from the ones used in standard Windows laptops, you can't use them to boot just any operating system. This is where ChrUbuntu comes in—it's a version of Ubuntu 12.04 LTS modified to work with Chrome OS hardware. Once it's installed you should be able to use the C7 to do just about everything you could do with a standard laptop running Ubuntu, and the Chrome OS partition is left on the disk so you can still boot into it and use it if you're so inclined.

These instructions should technically work with any Chromebook, but of all the ones on sale today, the C7 is perhaps best-suited to run alternate operating systems. It comes with a roomy (if slow) hard drive out of the box, and can easily be upgraded with more RAM and an SSD to speed it up. The recent Samsung Chromebooks, by comparison, take a less upgrade-friendly approach.

Preparing the Chromebook

Our first step toward getting ChrUbuntu on the C7 is to put it in developer mode. This is a multi-step process: first, turn your Chromebook off, and then press the power button while holding the Refresh (F3) and Esc keys simultaneously. This will boot the Chromebook into Recovery mode (which you'll also need to use to reload Chrome OS if you replace the hard drive—Google's instructions for creating Chrome OS recovery media are here).

If you booted into Recovery mode properly, you should see a screen telling you to insert recovery media. Instead, you'll want to press Crtl+D to toggle developer mode. This will prompt a reboot and a wait of several minutes while your Chromebook is reset. This will also erase any data on your drive, so proceed with caution if you've got anything you want to keep stored on the Chromebook itself.

After entering developer mode, your Chromebook will boot to a scary screen telling you that OS verification has been disabled. You can either wait until this screen disappears, at which point the laptop will boot into Chrome OS, or you can press Ctrl+D again to bypass it. After loading in developer mode, connect to a wired or wireless network, but don't log in—you still have to install the developer mode BIOS before you can install an alternate OS.

At the login screen, press Ctrl+Alt and the Forward (F2) button to bring up the Developer Console command prompt. At the "localhost login" prompt, enter chronos and press Enter. Type sudo bash and press enter, and then chromeos-firmwareupdate --mode=todev. If you see a message telling you that you can press Ctrl+U to run your own self-signed OS kernels, you're ready to install ChrUbuntu!

Installing ChrUbuntu

Type exit to take a step back to the chronos user command prompt. Now, we'll need to download and install the ChrUbuntu files. As of this writing, you'll need to type wget http://goo.gl/i817v; sudo bash i817v and press enter to initiate the setup process, but you may want to check the ChrUbuntu blog to make sure a newer version hasn't been released.

The installer will check to make sure you're running a developer BIOS and show you a message about using an unofficial Chromium OS kernel to enable 64-bit functionality. You won't need to worry about any of this, so just press Enter to continue.

You'll now need to decide what size to make your Ubuntu partition, which will depend on whether you've replaced the built-in hard drive with an SSD. I'm still using the stock 320GB hard drive, so the maximum size recommended by the installer was 292GB; I entered 290GB just to give Chrome OS a little extra breathing room.

Press Enter and the system will partition your disk, reboot, and begin running through Chrome OS's first-time setup process again. You'll have to repeat a few of the steps from above—connect to a network, and press Crtl+Alt+F2 again without logging in. Type chronos to login, and then wget http://goo.gl/i817v; sudo bash i817v to start the ChrUbuntu installer again. Now that you've partitioned your disk, the OS files will begin downloading—the complete size of the download is about 1GB, so it will take some time.

Once the install is completed, the computer will reboot into a fully functional Ubuntu install with a default username and password that are both set to "user." These should probably be changed or deleted.

If you reboot your Chromebook, by default it will continue to boot into Chrome OS, which lives on in its own dedicated partition. If you'd like ChrUbuntu to be the default, open up the Terminal in ChrUbuntu (or the Developer Console command prompt in Chrome OS) and enter sudo cgpt add -i 6 -P 5 -S 1 /dev/sda to change the default boot partition. Changing it back to Chrome OS is as easy as disabling developer mode when you boot the Chromebook, or entering sudo cgpt add -i 6 -P 0 -S 1 /dev/sda at the terminal.

How does it do?

Once you've got Ubuntu running on the C7, it works just as a standard laptop running Ubuntu would. You can install and run anything from the Ubuntu Software Center or other sources and you have full access to the filesystem, making the C7 a much more versatile computer than it is with just Chrome OS installed.

Happily, all of the major hardware—Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, audio, the webcam, and the GPU—appears to be working normally, and the Chromebook's function keys also perform as they do in Chrome OS. This means that games and video content should play normally, and the laptop goes into and out of sleep mode without a hitch.

The trackpad is a bit problematic, however: tap-to-click works fine but two-finger scrolling doesn't. You'll also probably run into some edge cases where things don't work perfectly. Video out over HDMI works, for example, and Ubuntu has multi-monitor and extended desktop support, but audio over HDMI doesn't appear to work as intended. Battery life also continues to be a weak point for the C7—in our testing it gets a little under four hours in Chrome OS, and while we didn't have time to perform extensive scientific testing under Ubuntu, the numbers should be similar or perhaps slightly worse.

The ChrUbuntu blog put out a call for C7 testers a few weeks ago—if you're using ChrUbuntu on the C7 and are experiencing problems, that's the place to report them.

Whither Windows?

We noted in the original review that the C7 Chromebook was just a lightly modified version of one of Acer's Windows laptops, the Aspire One 756. Using some BIOS files intended for that model, I spent some time trying to replace the Chromebook BIOS with the standard one to allow for booting of Windows and other operating systems not supported by the Chromebooks' boot loader.

Unfortunately, such an operation is more complicated than it seems. Standard Acer laptops have a "crisis boot" mode that allows for emergency re-flashing of the BIOS, but that doesn't work on a Chromebook. The Linux flashrom utility used in Chrome OS doesn't support flashing the BIOS ROMs you can download from Acer's support site.

Finally, even if you could find a BIOS file compatible with flashrom, the C7's BIOS appears to be hardware-locked, which is standard for Chromebooks. The original Cr-48 Chromebook prototype had BIOS protection that could be bypassed by applying some electrical tape to the motherboard, but the C7 doesn't have any such quick fix that I could find. It's probable that more enterprising minds will be able to figure out how to convert the C7 into a cheap run-anything laptop, but in the hours I spent trying to unlock the laptop I was unable to do so easily. If you'd like to run Windows apps on the C7, the most feasible solution is probably going to be a virtualization program like VirtualBox, which installs and runs without issue on the C7 once Ubuntu is up and running. - source

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