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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dylan522p - Friday, July 18, 2014 - link
Yes Vent is not demanding at all unless you are getting DDOSed or you have like hundreds on it.coburn_c - Friday, July 18, 2014 - link
I'm going to shamelessly plug OpenELEC for nettops. I'm running it on an old e-350 and it's fantastic. I tweeted them about steam streaming support and they said its a mid-term goal. It really is excellent.Rocket321 - Friday, July 18, 2014 - link
Would love to see a model with 2x Gigibit LAN + Wifi AC as a x86 router offering. They could drop the eMMC down to 8GB or include an empty SD slot to help with cost.varg14 - Friday, July 18, 2014 - link
I think it is way overpriced....now if it had 64gb of memory and just another gb of ram for a total of 3GB and then costed $150 I think it would be a great system to just surf the net and stream movies from your network. I would get 3 of them for the other 3 TV's I do not have a HTPC hooked up to.Heck 2 years ago I purchased 2 Gateway refurbished computers for a total of$560 with operating systems included. Both were Sandy based..I picked these up when it was on sale for 329$ that included a 7200rpm 1TB HDD 6GB of DDR3 1333 a wireless card and a great I3 2120 cpu i added a 7750 his icooler video card for $80 and it games very well considering the power supply is only 300 watts and has no pci e power connector, but not a problem the silent dual slot his 7750 icooler takes all its power from the pcie 16x slot....a great HTPC and light gaming rig to compliment my 2600k EVGA GTX 770 Classified 4gb ACX sli gaming/server tower along with another gateway slim u11p i picked up for 229$ that had a g530 CPU on a h-61 chipset 4GB of DDR3 1066 and a 5000GB 7200rpm drive then added a asus 6570 1gb LProfile card for $40 and clocked it to 800mhz games ok too :) I also picked up a i3 2125 for $40 since I use The Smooth Video project that ups the 24fps MKVs to 60 FPS and also uses madvr and MPHC I had to add the discrete video cards. It was well worth it since the picture is better on my Panasonic VT30 55" Plasma then a discrete Blu ray player. I highly suggest Trying the SVP project if you have not yet tried it. It comes in a neat easy to install package with everything included MPHC, MADvr and SVP. Movies and TV shows look a heck of a lot better at 60fps then at 24 or 30 fps. Also when it installs it detects your hardware so it does not overpower your system which is inportant since If I turn everything up to the max it can bring my 2600k @ 4.8ghz to its knees. MADvr I set up to use around 80% of my GPU also on all 3 of my rigs.
Rocket321 - Friday, July 18, 2014 - link
Keep in mind $180 is the MSRP, it may retail around there for a couple of months and then drop based on demand. Plus all your used stuff takes the 1-year warranty out of the mix.jospoortvliet - Friday, December 12, 2014 - link
And there is the power usage, size and noise side of things... You pay more for this and live with its limitations because it is small, quiet, and uses little power.HangFire - Friday, July 18, 2014 - link
I'm really saddened to read the comment " As consumers realized that they could get much better performance per watt from other platforms, the shift to tablets well and truly buried the old nettops and netbooks." It's a shame no one at AT remembers the role of Microsoft in making netbooks what they were, by pushing out Linux and imposing debilitating hardware restrictions on the low-cost models. We could all be typing on 9" micro-laptops with hi-rez displays and quad core CPU's for under $400 right now if it wasn't for the old thrice-convicted monopolist and monopoly abuser Microsoft.kmmatney - Friday, July 18, 2014 - link
The problem was that not enough people wanted the Linux netbooks... It was too much of a niche market.zepi - Monday, July 21, 2014 - link
I don't think this is true. There are multiple Chromebooks in Amazon.com top 10 most sold laptops.Chromebook is exactly what you are referring to: a small laptop with minimal Linux + browser combination for dummies.
wireframed - Saturday, July 19, 2014 - link
As kmmatney said, no one wanted Linux. Sure, everyone wanted a cheap nettop, and they bought the Linux one. Then they got home, tried to install their Windows programs, and none of them worked. When people were told "Oh, you can't run any of your apps on this, you have to find other (often crappier) ones instead", back it went.Linux/AltOS advocates seem to forget the OS is, for most people, completely beside the point - the apps are what matter. Linux could be the finest OS in the world, and it STILL wouldn't matter if the apps we need don't run.