14 DAY TRIAL // ECS has launched a product that once again shows just how different the concept of mini PC is today compared to ten years ago. While “mini PCs” were once just micro-ATX and mini-ITX computers, the one that ECS revealed now is half a liter in volume.
Called Liva X, it is the latest addition to the Liva mini PC collection and combines the best “entry-level” hardware available for this class of system.
That means that the computer is good enough to turn any television set or monitor into an all-in-one computer just by being present.
We use that comparison because the Liva X, like its peers, can easily be hidden behind whatever display you own, provided that it has a VESA stand or mounting holes anyhow.
The specs of the Liva X mini PC
For a computer that makes do without any sort of active cooling (which is to say, it doesn't have any fans), the hardware is actually pretty strong.
The 22nm Intel Bay Trail M SoC is the core of the computer, with two cores clocked at 2.25 GHz each and featuring the 64-bit instruction set.
4 GB of DDR3 RAM (random access memory) back up the chip, while storage space is provided by an enterprise multimedia card, or eMMC for short. There are 64 GB in total, enough for the OS and the basic programs a business or multimedia PC needs, but not sufficient for, say, storing a music or video library.
Fortunately, you can separately buy an mSATA SSD and install that in addition to everything else, so that problem isn't insurmountable.
Alternatively, you can just connect a flash drive or portable SSD/HDD to one of the USB 3.0 ports and play media that way.
Same for the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 3.0 technologies, as they allow you to stream even from tablets and smartphones without any cables.
Altogether, the computer should use just a tenth of the normal power needed by a desktop PC. The CPU alone runs on 15W.
Availability and pricing
The ECS Liva X mini PC, complete with Windows 8.1 with BING OS (optional) or Windows 7, Linux / Ubuntu OS should be up for sale shortly, if it isn't already. You might want to consider it if you want a cable-free room. Well, discounting power and peripheral cables at any rate.
