Product Reviews

Asus is making a name for itself as an innovator. Only a few months since the launch of the love-it-or-hate-it Eee PC, it's brought out another low-end yet distinctive machine, this time a desktop. The Nova comes without a screen, keyboard or mouse; you just get a PC crammed into a tiny and rather stylish case. Though there've been other compact desktops, this is perhaps the first that looks like a proper rival to Apple's Mac mini.

The Nova can sit horizontally, just like the mini, but we think it looks even better propped up vertically on the included stand. This also reduces its footprint to an improbable 100 square centimetres - the kind of desk space you'd normally devote to your router or an external hard disk, not your PC.

And it looks cool, too. Rather than some dull office machine, it's more like a games console. You can buy it in black or white, with the white version having a bold orange stripe around the middle. At the top of the case (whatever the colour), this stripe rises up into a little shark fin with circular holes drilled through it. Asus reckons this is a pen holder, but if the Nova is vertical your pens will fall out. Or the holes could be to put your fingers in, like with a bowling ball, if you had small fingers. Or maybe it's a cheerfully pointless design feature.

On one of the larger sides of the case is a big speaker grille that takes up around a third of the panel. The sound quality from this isn't great - the entire case is smaller than a decent speaker, after all - but it's fine for watching the

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odd video clip or listening to music while you work. Asus has also found room for a DVD burner, which you don't always get in ultra-cheap PCs. It's a slot-loader, so there's nothing to clutter the sleek lines. The eject button, like the power switch, is just a small touch-sensitive area, lit from behind by an LED.

The back of the case is also uncluttered, but here this isn't such a good thing. There are only four USB ports, two of which will be used straight away by a keyboard and mouse (there are no old-fashioned PS/2 ports for these). The traditional VGA monitor port is also absent, replaced by the newer DVI connection. And there's no Ethernet port for wired networking.

Your options are also limited inside the case. In fact, not only is there no room for upgrading, but you can't even open the case without voiding the warranty. The supplied hard disk is small both physically (Asus has had to opt for a smaller style laptop drive to fit it into the case) and in its 120GB capacity, which is enough to be going on with but not generous by today's standards.

Small wonder

The Nova is relatively quick, considering its diminutive form. It scored 126% in our 2D (general) benchmark, which is fine for general Windows Vista tasks and on a par with similarly priced laptops. 3D gaming is certainly out of the question - the integrated graphics wouldn't even run our 3D benchmark - but for office tasks and media playback it performed well.

Windows Media Center is included with the installed Vista Home Premium, and a Media Center remote is also thrown in (amusingly dwarfing the PC itself), so the Asus has real potential as a living room PC. There's no TV tuner as standard, but you could add that via USB.

It also makes a great desktop machine. Our only complaint is that it's not quite as cheap as you might have hoped, especially considering the lack of peripherals. But conventional budget desktops, though more affordable, don't come close to the Nova's good looks and tiny size. Its main competition comes from laptops, of which plenty are available in this price bracket, screen included.