Chips By Lee Mathews Jun. 3, 2014 3:29 pm
There are a lot of small PCs out there, but not many come smaller than the ECS Liva. It’s a sub-$200 barebones PC that occupies about the same volume as two Apple TV units stacked together. One other cool thing about the Liva: it can be powered via USB.
You could actually power the Liva from one of the innumerable USB power banks that are designed to provide emergency power for your smartphone or tablet, though likely not for very long. Still, you can do it… and that’s pretty cool. ECS is certainly excited about it, though it would be nice if they’d let the camera roll a bit longer so we could see how long the average pack could keep it running:
Chances are good that most potential Liva buyers probably don’t intend to run it off a battery anyway. Sure, it’s possible, but the Liva is better suited to being a secondary PC for web browsing or an always-on HTPC.
Specs-wise, it’s pretty much on par with a Chromebox. In addition to the Bay Trail Atom CPU, the diminutive ECS mainboard supplies 2GB of DDR3 RAM, 32GB of eMMC storage, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports. HDMI and VGA hookups are provided, so you can even run dual displays if you like.
Another feature that makes the Liva a good choice for HTPC use is that it’s fanless. That means no annoying whirs or hums encroaching on your streaming video fun. ECS is also busy working on Ubuntu drivers for the system. They’re available in beta form right now, and with any luck they’ll be finalized before the Liva goes on sale in your region.
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You could actually power the Liva from one of the innumerable USB power banks that are designed to provide emergency power for your smartphone or tablet, though likely not for very long. Still, you can do it… and that’s pretty cool. ECS is certainly excited about it, though it would be nice if they’d let the camera roll a bit longer so we could see how long the average pack could keep it running:
Chances are good that most potential Liva buyers probably don’t intend to run it off a battery anyway. Sure, it’s possible, but the Liva is better suited to being a secondary PC for web browsing or an always-on HTPC.
Specs-wise, it’s pretty much on par with a Chromebox. In addition to the Bay Trail Atom CPU, the diminutive ECS mainboard supplies 2GB of DDR3 RAM, 32GB of eMMC storage, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports. HDMI and VGA hookups are provided, so you can even run dual displays if you like.Another feature that makes the Liva a good choice for HTPC use is that it’s fanless. That means no annoying whirs or hums encroaching on your streaming video fun. ECS is also busy working on Ubuntu drivers for the system. They’re available in beta form right now, and with any luck they’ll be finalized before the Liva goes on sale in your region.
More...
