ECS LIVA One Skylake mini-PC Review

Final Words

The ECS LIVA One provided us with the opportunity to evaluate Skylake in a mini-PC configuration. Small form factor PCs that can be VESA-mounted on the back of a display are understandably popular, and the LIVA class of products from ECS caters to this market segment as an alternative to the standard NUCs. With the addition of the LIVA One, ECS has introduced a very high performance level compared to the Atom-based and Core M-based levels existing previously. The LIVA One brings about a number of interesting advantages:

• The use of a LGA socketed CPU allows for end users to upgrade or even choose their own CPUs (in the case of barebone configurations)
• The SF-Plus add-on (using one of the USB 3.0 ports for bridging to the main system) provides an interesting way to augment the system without altering the form factor in a major way
• The integration of a COM port in the chassis lends itself to industrial use-cases.
• The pricing (around $450) is in the same ballpark as that of the LIVA Core (using a Core M processor) - for those who do not require a fanless PC, it is a no-brainer to go with the Skylake-based LIVA One.
• The thermal solution, despite being active, is relatively silent and gets the job done perfectly.

ECS has done a lot of things right with the LIVA One (as described above), but there are a few aspects that could do with some improvement.

• The microSD slot (enabled by a Realtek USB 2.0 card reader chip) should be replaced with a full-sized SDHC card slot (one should note that microSD cards can be used in those with a passive adapter, but the reverse situation is not possible).
• The chassis is not straightforward to open up. The D-Sub (VGA) port's side screws need to be removed with a non-standard screwdriver in order to gain access to the system's internals. We believe it is not necessary for the VGA port to be fastened on to the chassis itself.
• A smaller power brick (or, even better, a wall wart design like the one used by the recent NUCs) would be nice to have
• Premium systems like the LIVA One and the LIVA Core should go with an Intel NIC instead of a Realtek NIC for wired networking purposes.
• The three non-bridging USB 3.0 Type-A ports could do with a better spread around the chassis (maybe one on the side, or even in the front panel)

We will not fault ECS for going with single-channel memory in the preconfigured system. End users can always add another SODIMM to boost the memory capacity. Obviously, it would be nice to have faster pre-installed memory (say, 9-9-9-24 compared to the current 11-11-11-28), but that is a minor issue. We are also not very enthusiastic about the SandForce-based SSD choice. But, the good news is that the end-user can always add a 2.5" drive or replace the 80GB M.2 SSD with their own storage media.

Coming to Skylake itself, I have to say that I am very disappointed with a couple of aspects. The media playback ecosystem (drivers / software) issue is one that I have already discussed in the HTPC Credentials section. The other is related to the travails we went through while getting this review processed. While the benchmarks themselves might not convey the story, our first pass with the shipped unit gave performance numbers around 20 - 30% lower than what we finally published. Since we didn't have a clear inkling of what the performance would be, the numbers didn't seem amiss. It was only when we started tracking power consumption numbers that we realized something fishy was afoot. The system was idling at 23 W, and closer attention to the system operation revealed that the CPU was held hostage by the Windows 10 Diagnostic Policy Service process to the tune of 50% (ensuring that the cores never went below 3.1 GHz). Long story short, it turned out that the issue was reproducible and the only solution was to migrate to Intel's latest BIOS (which, incidentally, also includes the fix for the bug exposed by Prime 95). ECS forwarded us the BIOS directly from Intel without internal testing, and that is what we had to use for the numbers presented here.

The absence of any credible competition in this space has resulted in Intel probably taking it a bit too easy when it comes to platform validation. Even 6 months after its release, it is surprising to see the Skylake platform having so many user-visible issues. Thankfully, all of the problems reported so far seem to be fixable via BIOS updates. Hopefully, as time goes by, the Skylake platform becomes more mature.

Back to the ECS LIVA One, we can say that the mini-PC packs a lot of punch in an economical package with acceptable trade-offs. The introduction of the mSTX form factor and systems like the LIVA One will serve to expand the market for DIY PC builders.Compared to the NUC form factor machines, the pre-configured version of the ECS LIVA One provides much better CPU performance at a lower price point.