ECS LIVA X Mini PC Review

Looking for a small, cheap computer, that runs Windows or Linux?  LIVA X might be the end of your quest

Most of the low-cost mini- desktops suffer from the shortage of ports, extendibility or poor WiFI performance, but the ECS LIVA X doesn’t suffer from either of those problems. It is an affordable mini-PC with a compact design which not only saves you space but also increases the mobility of your work environment. The complete PCB of LIVA is wrapped in a lightweight chassis that measures 5.3 x 3.2 x 1.5 inches and can be easily mounted behind a monitor, allowing users to create their own custom All-in-One (AIO) PC.

This little desktop powered by Intel Bay Trail-M / Bay Trail –I SoC processor (Intel Celeron Processor N2808) with 64-bit dual-core which has a base clock of 1.58 GHz and a turbo clock of 2.25 GHz on Intel advanced 22nm architecture. Low power consumption with fan-less design keeps it cool that means it can run 24x7 without any heating problem.

With HDMI and D-Sub support, LIVA X provides two independent output displays for home entertainment and multi-display applications. It has 2 USB 2.0 and 1 USB 3.0, HDMI, VGA, LAN and audio port, so this gives you the freedom to connect any device with the PC with ease. It  comes with 2 GB/ 4 GB DDR3L DRAM RAM for productive multitasking. In terms of connectivity, it has an M.2 form factor combo wireless card that supports 802.11b/g/n wireless and Bluetooth 4.0. On the storage side, it offers 32/64GB eMMC storage space which can be extended via mSATA SSDs for more storage.

Performance

The testing unit we received was with 4GB RAM and 64 GB eMMC.You can install either Windows 8/8.1 or Linux  but, unfortunately, there is no technical support for other OS except Windows. You can not install Windows 7 on eMMC since there is no storage driver available to support its eMMC storage solution.  You have to install mSATA SSD to support Windows 7. To  test the performance, we installed Ubuntu 14.1 OS on this PC and ran some real world performance tests.  We played HD videos from local storage and also streamed some from network drive  by using the VLC media player. All ran smoothly without any lag. We also ran Chrome and Mozilla simultaneously with  multiple tabs along with some online video sites such as YouTube and it works great. We also had used  multiple productivity apps to check its multi-tasking capabilities; it ran smoothly, thanks to its 4 GB RAM. You can also play some light graphics games on it as it has inbuilt intel HD graphics. Overall the performance of this device was decent.