It appears that Asus is planning on taking the success of its portable Eee PC to the next level. Rumors of the desktop version of the Eee PC have surfaced, with the system being expected for release early next month. According to Register Hardware, the Taiwanese company is expected to launch the desktop version of Eee PC at this year's Computex computer show, in Taipei.

Eee PC fans got their hopes high for a desktop version of their favorite portable computer system ever since Asus launched the Essentio CS5110 mini PC, back in April. The unit is expected to be available for purchase under the name of Ebox, although at some point it also went by the name of E-DT. And from what we can figure out from the Register Hardware website, the product looks pretty much like the Nitendo Wii gaming console.

As far as the technical specs go, little is known about this Wii-style desktop computer. But 2 GB of memory and a storage space of 160 GB are to be expected. Taking into consideration the small form factor of the Ebox, it is highly probable that this small desktop computer will incorporate an Intel Atom processor. With the operating system, Ebox is expected to run the Eee PC's Xandros version of Linux and will probably come bundled with the same line-up of applications.

Although the photos don't show it, Ebox is expected to offer even optical drive, which the Eee PC obviously lacks. Asus has talked about the desktop version of its successful Eee PC from back in October 2007, but more details didn't surface until January 2008. Back then, Asus said that the Ebox will be made public somewhere in the April-May time frame and will have a price tag around $200-$300.