Introduction

Although technology shrinks in size constantly at what seems to be an ever-increasing pace, not everything has become smaller. Our desktop PCs, for example, are just as big as they ever were, although capable of much more work. Meanwhile, as drive technology has increased, laptops and tablets are more diminutive in nature for sure, and come with pretty amazing battery life at the same time. Our TVs and monitors have lost their bezels, too, and nearly any new TV today has basic compute capabilities and Wi-Fi built in. But what if you don't have a new TV, but want to get all that digital content onto your older flat-screen? ECS's LIVA provided that possibility.

I just got a new 2014 model of a TV and have to say that its built-in PC hardware is slow and cumbersome, and navigating through its interface with a standard remote is outright frustrating. If I want to watch a bit of YouTube or Netflix, I have to push so many buttons and wait for such a long time for the built-in OS to boot that I usually just don't bother and trudge down the stairs to my main PC and its lovely 30-inch IPS screen. And then I connected my ECS LIVA mini-PC to my TV and all that changed. The LIVA admittedly isn't the fastest box on the planet, and its limited expansion possibilities left me wanting a bit, so when ECS told me they had a new mini-PC in the works, the LIVA X, I got a bit excited. Larger storage, a bit faster silicon, and added storage space thanks to a built-in mSATA port? Added Windows7 support and better USB arrangement, too? Plus a VESA mount? ECS's LIVA-X isn't only all that... it is dead silent to boot.

Packaging

ECS's new LIVA X arrived in a shorter, but longer box with a flashy new look compared to the original LIVA mini-PC. ECS was kinder this time around and sent me their top-level model with 64 GB of built-in eMMC storage and 4 GB of DDR3L.


Flipping open the box lid, I was greeted by my first look at the LIVA X, fully assembled and waiting for you to plug it into a display device and power. The included accessories were hidden under a layer of shiny black cardboard.

Contents

You'll find a universal adapter with add-on plugs for the various global regions inside the box, along with the LIVA X, the aforementioned VESA mount, a driver disc, and the manual. A full list of what I found is below:

• User's manual
• 1 x Quick set-up guide
• 1 x LIVA-X miniPC
• 1 x Power adapter
• 1 x ECS LIVA-X sticker
• 1 x Driver disc

The LIVA X's included VESA mount is pretty versatile, ready to be attached to most TVs and monitors that support a mount. Simply attach the mount and slide the LIVA X into place and you're nearly ready to go. If you choose a model that comes with Windows8.1 pre-installed, you can simply hit the power button and start enjoying the LIVA X, but Windows7 support requires you install an mSATA drive internally. I'll show you just how to do so in a moment.