ECS LIVA x2 Review: A Compact & Fanless Braswell PC

Introduction and Setup Impressions

The popularity of the NUC form factor has led to a resurgence in the nettop category. Thankfully, the core computing performance of the new systems has been miles ahead of the nettops of the past, and this has created an overall positive sentiment for the ultra-compact form factor (UCFF) in the minds of the consumers. While Intel, GIGABYTE, Zotac and ASRock have based their UCFF systems roughly on motherboards with similar size and features, ECS has been attempting to differentiate with fanless systems using Mini Lake boards and custom-designed chassis in their LIVA series. The feature set and pricing of the LIVA units make it target the developing and cost-sensitive markets. We have already reviewed two of their Bay Trail-based systems, the original   LIVA and the LIVA X. Intel's Bay Trail SoCs, based on the Silvermont x86 cores and fabricated in a 22nm process, are power-efficient enough to deliver usable fanless PCs. In migrating Bay Trail down to a 14nm process, Intel also managed to bring up the graphics performance while retaining a similar thermal envelop. While Bay Trail-T migrates to 14nm under the Cherry Trail nomenclature, Bay Trail-M and Bay Trail-D (the Pentiums and Celerons) come under Braswell. The ECS LIVA x2 is based on the Intel Celeron N3050, a Braswell SoC.

The LIVA x2 is ECS's biggest and heaviest LIVA yet. Coming in at 156 x 83 x 51 mm, the unit feels quite solid in hand, despite the plastic exterior. The solidity is in part due to the heavy heat sink inside the unit. There are no sharp edges, which is a plus in our opinion. The unit, however, comes only in pearl white with a silver trim. Subjectively speaking, it brings down the appeal of the unit compared to the construction. I personally prefer the black finish of the LIVA and LIVA X reviewed earlier.

The ECS LIVA x2 package, in addition to the main unit pictured above, contains a 36W (12V @ 3A) adapter, quick installation and user guides, power adapter plugs (US, UK and EU), a platform utility DVD and a VESA mount along with the necessary screws.

The gallery below takes us around the unit and its various features. The striking aspect is the absence of a USB port in the rear panel. Users hooking up wired USB keyboards / mice or dongles for wireless peripherals have to put up with connecting them to the front panel. Out of the three USB 3.0 ports in the front, one also serves as a charging port (i.e, power delivery over it works as long as the unit is connected to the AC power even if it is switched off). This port (dubbed the EZ Charge) can provide up to 2.2A at 5V.

Most of the mini-PCs that we have evaluated come in barebones configuration. They allow upgradation or installation of new OS drives as well as the main memory. They also don't come with a OS pre-installed. However, the LIVA x2, like the original LIVA and the LIVA X, come with eMMC storage for the OS and soldered memory chips. While the LIVA and LIVA X used DDR3L memory, the LIVA x2 goes with LPDDR3 (as per the BIOS entry). (Update: Turns out that the BIOS entry was not correct, and the LIVA x2 also uses DDR3L memory)

The specifications of our ECS LIVA x2 review configuration are summarized in the table below.

Our review unit also came with Windows 8.1 with Bing pre-installed. This version is capable of a free upgrade to Windows 10 Home, though the process is complicated a little by the limited amount of eMMC storage available (in certain cases). ECS does have step-by-step instructions for the upgrade, though.

In the table below, we have an overview of the various fanless systems that we are comparing the ECS LIVA x2 against. Note that they may not belong to the same market segment. The relevant configuration details of the machines are provided so that readers have an understanding of why some benchmark numbers are skewed for or against the ECS LIVA x2 when we come to those sections.