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ECS LIVA Z

crazyeyesreaper

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It would seem ECS is looking to corner the mini-PC market with their LIVA offerings. The LIVA Z is a continuation of that effort. Utilizing an ultra small form factor at an extremely affordable price, this palm-sized unit delivers more than you might have bargained for.

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theeldest

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I bought one of these for a pfsense router.

pfsense has terrible Realtek drivers. This wouldn't even hit gigabit for local routing. Do not use this with pfsense.

Routing in linux was fine, gigabit without issues. VPN with 128-bit AES-cbc topped out around 200Mbps.
 
crazyeyesreaper

crazyeyesreaper

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so seems someone needs to get some updated drivers working for pfsense. Namely Realtek. Granted seems to be dependent on the Gigabit NIC some Realteks work others do not work so well. Then again the amount of tinkering necessary to get pfSense working properly to begin with seems to be an issue for some regardless. That said ECS said it would work with the LIVA Z. That said for LINUX Unbuntu is supported but ECS does will not support other OSes. That said one could likely use Unbuntu to setup a router/firewall etc its more indepth but likely will work far better when configured properly.
 
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Tsukiyomi91

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this is decent enough for converting a normal 4K LED TV into a multimedia TV that can do way more stuff than all of those Smart TVs out there xD
 
theeldest

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crazyeyesreaper said:
so seems someone needs to get some updated drivers working for pfsense. Namely Realtek. Granted seems to be dependent on the Gigabit NIC some Realteks work others do not work so well. Then again the amount of tinkering necessary to get pfSense working properly to begin with seems to be an issue for some regardless. That said ECS said it would work with the LIVA Z. That said for LINUX Unbuntu is supported but ECS does will not support other OSes. That said one could likely use Unbuntu to setup a router/firewall etc its more indepth but likely will work far better when configured properly.
Click to expand...

I had fedora running problem free. I'd imagine their 'support' is just the limits of what they tested.
 
crazyeyesreaper

crazyeyesreaper

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theeldest said:
I had fedora running problem free. I'd imagine their 'support' is just the limits of what they tested.
Click to expand...
Most likely that is the case at this point Unbuntu 16.04LTS or Windows 10 thats it. pfsense i basically dragged out of them due to the dual nics i was intrigued. (local friend runs pfsense is thinking of down sizing the enormous full tower from a decade ago that is being used currently) As such and at his request I asked about it and actually got an answer.

Tsukiyomi91 said:
this is decent enough for converting a normal 4K LED TV into a multimedia TV that can do way more stuff than all of those Smart TVs out there xD
Click to expand...
Keep in mind HDMI is only 1.4 and is not HDCP 2.2 compliant ie no 4k streaming etc. However the box handled 4K content just fine via Youtube etc.
 
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D

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I have gotten a ECS Liva Z Plus engineering sample a month ago for review. I finally upgraded the RAM from the stock 1*4GB DDR4-2400 transcend to 2*4GB Kingstong Impact 2400/14 and my XTU score went from 470 up to 615 with all power limits removed in XTU on both runs. Hits 100C though :(

These Mini PC are very impressive. The non-plus version is even passive as an added bonus!

Great review :)
 
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