I got a chance to check out the new Asus Eee Top ET2002T this week, and it looks like the company’s Eee Top line has come a long way since I reviewed the ET1602 this summer. For starters, while the ET1602 had a 15.6 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel touchscreen display, the latest model has a 20 inch, 1600 900 pixel display.

Asus has also dropped the touchscreen, which makes sense because the ET2002T isn’t really meant for use as a kitchen PC, but rather as a multimedia machine. It includes a slot-loading DVD player and NVIDIA ION graphics fro handling 1080p video playback and even some video gaming duties.

The machine also has 2GB of RAM, a 320GB hard drive and a dual core Intel Atom 330 processor. The computer also has 802.11b/g/n WiFi built in. It runs Windows Vista Home Premium right now, but should be available with Windows 7 soon.

The Asus Eee Top ET2002T has a list price of $599, but you can pick it up for $581 from Amazon. I shot a short video of the ET2002T in action with Asus spokesperson Josh Norem the other night. You can check it out after the break.

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The Asus Eee Top ET2002T is an all-in-one desktop PC with a 20 inch, 1600 x 900 pixel display. But as I discovered when reviewing the 15.6 inch Eee Top ET1602 with its 1366 x 768 pixel display, high resolution displays and Intel Atom processors don’t always play well together. On the one hand, web pages and static images looked awesome. On the other hand, video (especially Flash) had trouble keeping up. I can only imagine things would be worse on the ET2002T with its even higher resolution display.

Fortunately, the ET2002T has two things the ET1602 doesn’t: A dual core Atom 330 CPU and NVIDIA ION graphics. Those might not be enough to make Hulu look good in full screen, but it should help the computer handle downloaded HD videos. There’s also a built in DVD burner if you want to watch movies from these old fashioned things called optical discs.

The computer has 2GB of RAM, a 250GB hard drive, and an HDMI input which lets you use the Eee Top as a display for a different computer. Blogeee reports that the ET2002T will be available in Europe within the next few weeks for about €598 or $846 US. So you have to wonder: Are people ready to pay that kind of money for any computer with an Intel Atom processor? Even one with a 20 inch touchscreen and NVIDIA ION?