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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cjb110 - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link
It's probably a side effect of them being soldered on the board, they've counted 4 of chips, each being 8 gigabit. If it had used sticks, then I doubt they'd have been counted as such. Some GPU reviews have done the same.GatesDA - Wednesday, October 7, 2015 - link
It's weird, but the lower-case "b" matters. For some reason it's listed in gigabits, and 8 gigabits (Gb) = 1 gigabyte (GB).mctylr - Wednesday, October 7, 2015 - link
No, it's not weird if you are use to using SI (metric), where prefixes are case sensitive as well (i.e. Mega versus milli).frenchy_2001 - Wednesday, October 7, 2015 - link
And if you want to be pedantic, they are NOT using the right symbol either.It should be 4 x 8Gib = 4 GiB
Gi = 2^30
G = 10 ^9, SI notation
http://wintelguy.com/gb2gib.html
mkozakewich - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link
Yeah, but that's stupid anyway. Only drive manufacturers use base-10 units. We should just call a billion byes "drive gigabytes" and leave the rest as regular GB.piroroadkill - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link
Disagree, there are actual standards on this kind of thing.Drive units are using correct SI order of magnitude prefix notation, whereas RAM manufacturers are not, and most people do not use them correctly. Windows reports sizes incorrectly (using the traditional, incorrect method). OS X reports sizes using SI notation these days, correctly.
Vepsa - Wednesday, October 7, 2015 - link
I think this would be great for a LSTP thin client.bznotins - Wednesday, October 7, 2015 - link
Feels like no hardware H.265 support is a deal-killer.Looking-forward to the lower-power Skylake CPUs for future streaming boxes.
nathanddrews - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link
That's my thought as well. Looking at it purely from a HTPC perspective, without HEVC support, it really offer very little over a much cheaper Atom-based Liva. As a generic workstation, you can't upgrade the RAM and the SSD upgrade path is very limited. It lacks a second gigabit port, so you can't make a router out of it either. For gaming, it's worthless unless you use it as a streamer, but then you can do that with much cheaper units as well. For $450-500, it's a terrible purchase no matter what your end goal is.Meh.
Oxford Guy - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link
"The only unfortunate aspect here is the complete absence of any sort of hardware acceleration for HEVC."It strikes me as particularly ridiculous that Intel has rolled out their 14nm parts with iGPUs that have no H.265. WEAK.