The mini PC kit ECS has offered is shipped in a DIY format, which is quite unique for this market and by assembling it, people will learn a bit regarding its internal components. Customers should pay a little bit of attention when installing the WiFi/Bluetooth antennas along with the M.2 Combo Card in order not to damage it.

The sturdy plastic case protects the internal components against damages and the supplied interfaces are enough to start operating right away. We have ports for dual monitor support, two USBs, one RJ45 for wired LAN but also wireless connectivity via the internal card. The unit does not need active cooling and it can be powered by an USB power bank if another source of energy cannot be located nearby, which is great. Be warned though that the specific power source must be able to deliver at least 2.1 A, otherwise you will encounter issues.

The Bay Trail-M platform from Intel does not support Legacy boot, but only UEFI and we are limited at the moment to Windows 8.1 installs (with Linux support later on). The drivers we need to install are quite numerous but all are found on the ECS website. If we need updated versions, we can always go take a look on the Intel Drivers download website.

While the unit was offered first with only 32GB of storage, and the remaining space after the Windows installation was not that much, now this issue has been solved with the new 64GB eMMC version, with more than 41GB space left.

The small LIVA can perform office tasks without breaking a sweat and we highly recommend it. Negative points? Well, there is only one: the device is fitted with only two USB ports and if we would have at least three, it would have been better in order to be able to attach a storage device along with the keyboard and mouse.

The LIVA mini-PC is available online for about 156 Euros.

ECS LIVA Mini PC Kit is Recommended For:

We would like to thank again to ECS for making this review possible!