ECS LIVA Review: The Nettop Rises Again
by Ganesh T S on July 18, 2014 9:15 AM ESTPerformance Metrics
The ECS LIVA was evaluated using our standard test suite for low power desktops. First off, we have some Futuremark benchmarks. PCMark 8 provides various usage scenarios (home, creative and work) and offers ways to benchmark both baseline (CPU-only) as well as OpenCL accelerated (CPU + GPU) performance. We benchmarked the ECS LIVA for OpenCL accelerated performance in all three usage scenarios. PCMark Suite from PCMark 7, as well as 3D Mark benchmarks were also run. All the Futuremark benchmark numbers are presented in the table below.
| ECS LIVA - Futuremark Benchmarks | |
| Benchmark | Score |
| PCMark 8 (Home OpenCL) | 1035 |
| PCMark 8 (Creative OpenCL) | 766 |
| PCMark 8 (Work OpenCL) | 1135 |
| PCMark 7 - PCMark Suite | 2215 |
| 3DMark 11 (Entry - 1024x768 - Score) | 374 |
| 3DMark 13 (Cloud Gate Score) | 1015 |
| 3DMark 13 (Ice Storm Score) | 11711 |
Some of the other benchmarks that we processed on the ECS LIVA include Cinebench R15 (OpenGL, single-threaded and multi-threaded), x264 v5.0, 7-zip, TrueCrypt (The Celeron N2806 doesn't have AES-NI support, so the results are on the lower side) and Dolphin emulator.
| ECS LIVA - Miscellaneous Benchmarks | |
| Benchmark | Score |
| Cinebench R15 (OpenGL) | 4.66 |
| Cinebench R15 (Single Threaded) | 31 |
| Cinebench R15 (Multi-Threaded) | 49 |
| x264 v5.0 Pass 1 | 8.67 fps |
| x264 v5.0 Pass 2 | 1.51 fps |
| 7z Compression | 1926 |
| 7z Decompression | 3305 |
| TrueCrypt | 109 MBps |
| Dolphin Emulator | 3032 s |
Network & Storage Subsystem Evaluation
We have recently started analyzing the storage and networking credentials of mini-PCs under review. On the storage side, one option would be repetition of our strenuous SSD review tests on the drive(s) in the PC. Fortunately, to avoid that overkill, PCMark 8 has a storage bench where certain common workloads such as loading games and document processing are replayed on the target drive. Results are presented in two forms, one being a benchmark number and the other, a bandwidth figure. We ran the PCMark 8 storage bench on selected PCs and the results are presented below.
We find that the eMMC solution in the ECS LIVA nicely slots in between HDD-based solutions and SSD-based ones. For the price point of the product, this is a very good choice (though we wouldn't have objected to 64 GB eMMC coming in as default).
On the networking side, we restricted ourselves to the evaluation of the WLAN component. Our standard test router is the Netgear R7000 Nighthawk configured with both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz networks. The router is placed approximately 20 ft. away, separated by a drywall (as in a typical US building). A wired client (Zotac ID89-Plus) is connected to the R7000 and serves as one endpoint for iPerf evaluation. The PC under test is made to connect to either the 5 GHz (preferred) or 2.4 GHz SSID and iPerf tests are conducted for both TCP and UDP transfers. It is ensured that the PC under test is the only wireless client for the Netgear R7000. We evaluate total throughput for up to 32 simultaneous TCP connections using iPerf and present the highest number in the graph below. The ECS LIVA Wi-FI card is not dual-band capable, and hence, it was conencted to the 2.4 GHz SSID.
In the UDP case, we try to transfer data at the highest rate possible for which we get less than 1% packet loss.
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nathanddrews - Friday, July 18, 2014 - link
I'm guessing that if my Pentium T4400 laptop can do it, then this thing can as well, but that would be a great test now that Streaming is out of beta.rocktober13 - Friday, July 18, 2014 - link
I was looking for something like this too. I ended up going with an Amazon Fire TV, and sideloaded limelight. It seems to be able to handle 1080p streaming, but I haven't tested it extensively. I just got it up and running. I would say it's a pretty nice solution at only $100. It does require an Nvidia card though. Oh, and you can side load XBMC for a complete HTPC replacement.djfourmoney - Wednesday, July 23, 2014 - link
Fire TV is the best set-top media streamer available ATM. For what I do with a HTPC, I had considered switching to a DirecTV HD-DVR (Tivo maybe) and a FireTV for all the streaming stuff.The FireTV can handle YouTube, but no support for Hulu Free, just Hulu Plus (boo!). Guess I could watch Hulu free via XMBC like you said side-loaded onto it.
I'm just not fond of switching inputs. But I do it manually not by remote, so maybe if I solved that issue, it would just leave Hulu.
I could then retire the P4 WHS 2011 and use the use the Llano as the server use less power and the case can hold four drives, adding 6TB would solve all my storage issues at once, in-fact just adding one more 3TB drive will do that.
We'll see... But I like the Liva for maybe a micro server? With Windows Server unfortunately you would have to put it on a larger drive first and then shrink it down.
owan - Friday, July 18, 2014 - link
Can the slot occupied by the wifi module be repurposed for an SSD if the storage is insufficient? Obviously you lose wifi, but a USB based wifi would be an easy fix.ganeshts - Friday, July 18, 2014 - link
No, I had the same question for ECS initially, but the answer is that the M.2 slot can be used only for the appropriate Wi-Fi cardsSamus - Saturday, July 19, 2014 - link
That's so stupid. Is there a BIOS blacklist or something?speculatrix - Saturday, July 19, 2014 - link
I think it's just that miniPCIe can be wired in different ways, for usb, sata and pcie-like, so quite possibly this board simply isn't wired for mSATA?Aikouka - Friday, July 18, 2014 - link
When I saw that the unit had a M.2 slot, I had hopes that it could be replaced with a M.2-based SSD. Unfortunately, based on some Google searching, that Wi-Fi/BT card is a 1630 M.2 card ( http://www.embeddedworks.net/wlan515.html ), which means it's 30mm long. The smallest M.2 SSD that I can find is a xx42, which is 42mm long. =( 32GB would be really pushing it for PLEX, which stores its metadata (images) locally. Although, I think you can change settings to reduce it, but my HTPCs definitely use more than 32GB of their SSDs.ganeshts - Friday, July 18, 2014 - link
Two ideas here:1. Add a USB thumb drive 'permanently'
2. If you have a NAS, create a iSCSI LUN and map it on this PC.
mcfrumpy - Friday, July 18, 2014 - link
I just want something cheap I can run a Ventrilo server on. I'm assuming this will work great.