The ASUS  nettop, which had given us a taste of how intelligent such devices can be last month, is now arriving with a luring addition. The ASUS Eee Box EB1501 has now been incorporated with an optional upgrade of a Blu-ray drive. The arrival of a Blu-ray drive is seen by the PC maker as bringing in more popularity for the device.

Originally available with features such as Intel Atom N330 dual core processor, plus RAM configurations available of up to 4GB (DDR2-800), the ASUS Eee Box EB1501 now spruced up with Blu-ray is available at the moment at European online stores. A slot-loading DVD burner and the presence of a 250GB hard drive and an NVIDIA Ion graphics chipset, are among the other standard features.

The nettop has WiFi b/g/n and gigabit Ethernet, while other connectivity aspects include four USB 2.0 ports, a 4-in-1 memory card reader, audio in/out, S/PDIF and DVI.

ASUS has attached a rather expensive tag, with prices starting at $618. Considering that it offers 1080p HD capabilities and that it is a bit more of a HTPC then a nettop, the high prices seem justified.

(Via SlashGear)