Performance, Thermals, and Power
Hardware testing
To begin with I installed Windows 8.1. With most people using some version of Microsoft’s OS I went with Windows (though I will briefly cover an Ubuntu installation later in this article). Initially I was impressed just with the speed of my Windows 8.1 install, which didn’t take any more time than an average desktop. I suspected that the performance of the onboard eMMC storage was pretty good. Once Windows and all drivers were installed I noted some first impressions of the user experience.
The LIVA doesn’t have the hardware to be lightning fast, but any delays with the Windows UI were minimal. Real-world speed is going to depend on which apps are running, of course, and these initial impressions were made with no additional applications open. I downloaded a few applications to get a feel for what using this LIVA as a daily driver might be like, and then proceeded to do just that over the course of a week. I installed Chrome and Firefox (and the latest version of Flash), downloaded iTunes and VLC for media playback, and LibreOffice for some productivity testing.
Opting to test out the storage speed first, given my initial impression that the LIVA had good read/write speed from the onboard eMMC, I ran a couple of drive benchmarks as soon as my Windows install was complete. With sequential reads of just over 100 MB/s and writes of over 40 MB/s the 32GB of onboard storage was pretty quick, outperforming 2.5” rotating media.
Additional space would be relegated to external USB drives or network storage, but the eMMC functioned well as a Windows boot drive.
I installed PCMark 7 to give readers a frame of reference for the LIVA. I ran the free benchmark and received a score of 2266. Certainly this is only a fraction of what we might expect from a performance PC, but not so bad considering the hardware involved.
HD Playback
One of the ideal applications of the LIVA might be as a small media server, especially for NAS devices without such capability. For example, the Thecus units we reviewed recently both featured iTunes server functionality out of the box, but many NAS units do not. If media playback is smooth on this little PC, there could be some even more interesting applications for the living room as well. I wanted to jump right in to HD media playback, and this served a dual-purpose as an opportunity for real-world thermal testing.
For the first test I used Chrome to watch 1080p movie trailers on YouTube. And…let’s just say that 1080p flash video is not going to be an option here. YouTube 720p playback was fine, however. Next I moved on to Blu-ray playback through VLC (with AnyDVD HD) using my external ASUS Blu-ray drive. This time 1080p was smooth. CPU utilization was still 100%, but the LIVA kept up and I didn’t see a single stutter. I will add that multi-tasking during a stressful process like HD playback was actually possible, though the system was not really useable. This isn’t the machine for you if you like watching videos while web browsing.
I quickly revisited 1080p playback with the common MKV format file using VLC. Once again, 1080p was smooth on the LIVA, and I encountered no stuttering at all. Additionally, as I was testing with the LIVA connected to my TV in the living room I was pleased to note that audio over HDMI worked perfectly with no configuration required. I have to say I’m impressed at the trouble-free 1080p playback from a high quality video file after observing choppy 1080p from YouTube – though naturally the Flash container introduces additional overhead.
Wireless Performance
The included Broadcom wireless SDIO adapter offered excellent speed, and the internal antenna (which is installed with adhesive to the top of the LIVA's case interior) offered very good reception around my house. I tested overall throughput with a larger download and observed excellent speed using uTorrent to download the latest Ubuntu desktop image.
With a peak download speed of 7.4MB/s and an average of over 5MB/s, the wireless card was taking full advantage of my 60Mb/s (7.5MB/s) cable connection. I lucked into an incredible day of internet speed for me, and these are equal to the highest numbers I've seen at home with a connection that rarely reaches the full advertised speed. The fact that this performance was recorded using only the LIVA and the included wireless card is very impressive.
Temperatures
During the 1080p Blu-ray playback test the maximum temperature recorded using RealTemp was 68 C on both cores after 30 minutes. This temperature remained constant past the 40-min mark when I moved on to other tests. (When testing MKV playback temps were virtually identical to those observed during Blu-ray playback at 66 C, with the 2 C difference attributable to variance in ambient temps in the room.) There was noticeable warmth coming from the vents at the top of the LIVA’s tiny enclosure, but the system seemed to be working as designed. At this point it seems that the heatsink employed by ECS is more than adequate for this implementation.
Idle temps with the LIVA were higher than what a desktop user might be used to most of the time. The CPU cores downclock to as low as 500MHz at idle, but the temps would jump from a low of only 26 C (during sleep) to 45 – 50 C when resuming and then opening a web browser. This did not seem to present a problem, however, and the LIVA never reached 60 C unless the system was pushed (i.e. HD video).
Power Consumption
I tested the LIVA's total power draw from the wall using a Kill-A-Watt meter, and the numbers are just ridiculous. Only 3.2 W (yes, 3.2 watts) at idle, and the highest I observed at full load was 9.5 W. The TDP of the SoC's Celeron N2807 is 4.5 W, with the SDP (scenario design power) rated at just 2.5 W. Needless to say, the idea of running a complete PC – CPU, GPU, RAM, storage, networking, I/O – at 10 W or less is pretty amazing. The supplied power brick is a micro-USB adapter, and though it is larger and more powerful than the usual phone or even tablet charger, the LIVA would probably run from just about any high quality smartphone charger considering how little power the system requires.
Good review although I’ve
Good review although I’ve recently purchased one of the I5 NUCs & I’m very happy with it. Very small (even with the case that accepts a 2.5 drive), noise isn’t an issue & it runs Mavericks really well. Only slight disadvantage is the price, but if you’re looking for a cheap, small & powerful system you can only have two of those things.
I have been waiting wishing
I have been waiting wishing hoping for a small efficient flash player for watching tv online and netflix on the big screen. I currently use an old laptop that works great. It has to be almost 8 years old now(core2 p8600 I think, 9600m GT, 2GB ddr2-800). I almost pulled the trigger on a NUC but figured I would wait to see what was in the pipeline with baytrail. Sounds like the LIVA is almost there. And so I wait.
they said on the podcast that
they said on the podcast that this thing has trouble with flash video. HTML5, and VLC 1080p mkv’s worked fine, but it lagged horribly on flash video.
One thing I would be curious
One thing I would be curious to know is how this performs using Steam in home streaming. The idea of a small and power efficient device to play games over a local network is perhaps another good use case especially for the gamer/enthusiast crowd.
Btw…Lords of the Realm 2! Been a while, but I instantly recognized this. It’s definitely a fun game to play now and again even if the AI is easily exploitable during battles. I might just have to dig it up yet again and see if I can get it running…but like many people I should probably put some time towards the rather sizable backlog of games on my Steam account…damn Skyrim mods.
That’s an interesting
That's an interesting question. I would guess that in-home streaming would work just fine with the LIVA, but I'll revisit this if I have a chance.
Also, the exploitable AI in LR2 is one of my favorite features! I liked the strategy and resource management more than the battles… Great game, I have it on CD-ROM but I bought it at GoG for the ease of install on a current OS (and it's around $5).
Hey, Sebastian!
Nice review.
Hey, Sebastian!
Nice review. I’ve had my eye on one of these since they were announced, but I was disappointed to see that it struggled with 1080p Flash playback. Did you happen to try any HTML5 playback during your testing?
Thanks! No, I didn’t attempt
Thanks! No, I didn't attempt 1080p HTML5. Actually, after installing Ubuntu and having no trouble with Flash playback at 1080p (Firefox) I was sold on the LIVA's ability to do this. Windows 8 just presents a little too much system overhead it seems… Ubuntu was actually great overall – no sluggishness. If I were to buy one of these I wouldn't be running Windows (and of course now ECS will be including Windows 8.1 with Bing with new LIVA units…)
I might suggest using Metro
I might suggest using Metro apps whenever possible if you are running Windows 8. For example, even my AMD E-350 machine can comfortably play HD Netflix using the Metro app but chokes if I try and play the same content in a web browser.
Looks perfect as a home
Looks perfect as a home server. Cheap, quiet will it run windows server?
I don’t see any reason why it
I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t run Windows Server. The N2807 is standard x86-64, so it should work. However, I’d spring for the 64GB version over the 32GB if you’re going to install Windows Server and actually do anything with it. The difference is $20, if I recall.
In terms of usability, I
In terms of usability, I wonder how this compares to Zotac’s new ZBOX PI320 pico? This has a Celeron, while the itty bitty Zotac has an Atom Z3735F. It’s basically a Win8 tablet without the housing, and it comes with Windows installed for about the same price.
Performance should be very
Performance should be very close given the scores of both CPU’s on cpubenchmark.net. The Zotac has 3 USB vs only 2 on the ECS. However, the ECS does have VGA, which may be a plus. I’d say realistically they’re pretty even and choose based on which you need (more USB and an SD slot or dual video outputs).
For a few years now I have
For a few years now I have been a HUGE plex fan, but I pined for a client machine that was tiny and silent like a ras-pi, and could play full bitrate blueray rips served from a plex server. This FINALLY lookes like what I want!
Wonder if this thing would
Wonder if this thing would play older games like Warcraft 3….