14 DAY TRIAL // If you ever told ECS that its Liva miniature personal computer looks like a NUC from Intel, it would probably vehemently deny it, and it could probably summon a whole set of reasons about the hardware not being quite the same and whatnot.
However, no matter how true the argument would be, Elitegroup Computer System would have to concede that the Liva is actually similar to the Next Unit of Computing in terms of size and shape.
Sure, it's black instead of white or blue, or whatever other color the makers of NUC cases like to play with every other month.
In the end, though, the Liva looks a lot like it. Not that it's such a crime. No one can complain much when their PC is small enough to comfortably sit in the palm of their hand.
The specs of the ECS Liva Mini PC
First off, with the chassis so small, the little motherboard inside can't be larger than a credit card, establishing a sort of kinship with the Raspberry Pi, even though the hardware is totally different. Distant kinship, but kinship nonetheless.
The hardware is centered around an Intel Bay Trail-M CPU and consists of Realtek RTL8111G LAN (networking technology), Realtek ALC282 audio with 2CH Combo Jack, a WiFi 802.11a/b/g/n + Bluetooth 4.0 module (wireless communications) and a USB 3.0 port.
For video, the integrated graphics processor inside the CPU gets one HDMI output and one VGA port.
In terms of IO (besides what we've already mentioned), we're looking at one USB 3.0 / 1 USB 2.0 port, an Audio Combo Jack, and one Power Connector (Micro USB Port).
As for cooling, the case doubles as such, but the immediate heat of the CPU is taken away and dissipated by a fanless heatsink apparently made of copper.
As for software, Elitegroup Computer Systems installed the Microsoft Windows 8.1 operating system on the Liva Mini PC, complete with the Bing search engine. It'll be interesting to see how many people use it instead of switching to Google the moment they install Firefox or Chrome.
Availability and pricing
ECS didn't mention either in its official press release, but shipments shouldn't take too long in starting now that both the press release and the official product page of the Liva Mini PC are online. The price will likely be of around two hundred dollars or Euro, maybe even less. Unless specs change to something stronger and the tag becomes of just under $500 / €500, but that's unlikely.