ECS LIVA Core Review: A Fanless Core M mini-PC
by Ganesh T S on October 7, 2015 8:00 AM ESTPerformance Metrics - I
The ECS LIVA Core was evaluated using our standard test suite for low power desktops / industrial PCs. Not all benchmarks were processed on all the machines due to updates in our testing procedures. Therefore, the list of PCs in each graph might not be the same.
Futuremark PCMark 8
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 select PCs for the OpenCL accelerated performance in all three usage scenarios. These scores are heavily influenced by the CPU in the system. The Core M 5Y10c is no match for the Core U CPUs that operate with 3x the TDP rating. However, it manages to handily beat all the Atom-based fanless PCs that we have evaluated before. Amongst the PCs based on sub-10W TDP processors, the closest competitor actually happens to be the Haswell-Y -based Zotac ZBOX CI540 nano (which uses a i5-Y platform).
Miscellaneous Futuremark Benchmarks
3D Rendering - CINEBENCH R15
We have moved on from R11.5 to R15 for 3D rendering evaluation. CINEBENCH R15 provides three benchmark modes - OpenGL, single threaded and multi-threaded. Evaluation of select PCs in all three modes provided us the following results.
The aspects noted while discussing the Futuremark benchmark results hold true here also. Basically, platforms using processors with higher TDP perform better. When compared to platforms with similar TDP, the Core M-based ECS LIVA Core manages to easily provide the best possible performance.
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Pissedoffyouth - Wednesday, October 7, 2015 - link
What's the Linux support like? I'd want one to use as a main desktop PCJaybus - Wednesday, October 7, 2015 - link
The relatively new AC 3165 WLAN chip is supported in kernels 4.1+. With older kernels an Intel driver will be needed. I'm not sure of the exact minimum kernel version that the Intel driver supports. All of the other hardware should be supported in recent distros.WJames65 - Wednesday, October 7, 2015 - link
Nice to see Anandtech providing small footprint "mini PC" reviews. I just ordered a MSI cube with a Broadwell CPU. To the user who noted no H.265 support, Intel added driver support to Haswell and Broadwell months ago. The author of this review didn't mention H.265 support, and did not test it. Perhaps, another review or an update will include H.265 testing.ganeshts - Wednesday, October 7, 2015 - link
Please note the final paragraph in the HTPC Aspects section. HEVC decode (even hybrid acceleration) is NOT supported in the Broadwell Core M SKUs.WJames65 - Wednesday, October 7, 2015 - link
Yeah, I see that line in the HTPC section. However, Intel says otherwise: http://techreport.com/news/27677/new-intel-igp-dri...WJames65 - Wednesday, October 7, 2015 - link
This is interesting... According to Intel, only those CPUs with Iris 5500 or later have hardware accelerated H.265. Glad my mini-PC has such a GPU. :) See here: https://communities.intel.com/thread/59216Bob Todd - Wednesday, October 7, 2015 - link
I replaced a much larger HTPC with one of the cheap and tiny ECS LIVA units (dual core Bay Trail-M, gigabit ethernet, HDMI, 2GB RAM, 32GB emmc). For $99 it has proven to be a great little streamer for the modest needs in our bedroom. Low tdp. No fan . No blinding blue LEDs to disconnect.Einy0 - Wednesday, October 7, 2015 - link
I've been using the same unit in my living room for about a year now. The latest release of Windows 10 insider has nearly broken the Netflix app completely. I may have to move on to another platform or go back to Windows 8.1.Pissedoffyouth - Wednesday, October 7, 2015 - link
And what did we learn today about using alpha software?Gigaplex - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link
Windows 10 insider program is not alpha. It's more like a cross between beta and release candidate.