The desktop PC market has been subject to many challenges over the last few years. However, the miniaturization trend (including the introduction of the ultra-compact form factor - UCFF - NUCs) has provided some bright spots. The recent introduction of the mSTX (5x5) form factor has provided yet another option between the NUC and the mITX form factor for PC builders. Companies like ASRock and Zotac have been marketing mini-PCs based on mSTX-like custom boards for a few years now. ECS joined the fray in early 2016 with the launch of the LIVA One based on a Skylake platform.

Introduction and Setup Impressions

The LIVA One is the latest member of ECS's mini-PC lineup that started with the LIVA, a Bay Trail-M system, in mid-2014. Since that time, ECS has introduced the LIVA X, LIVA x2 and the LIVA Core - each of them packing in more performance compared to the previous generation. One common feature that tied all these units together was the fanless nature. However, with the LIVA One, ECS has decided to increase the size of the unit and also utilize active cooling for the CPU. The soldered CPUs of the older LIVA units has been replaced by a LGA processor - enabling end-users / buyers of barebones units to use their own CPUs (as long as they are Skylake ones having a TDP of 35W or lower).

The LIVA One is based on the H110 Sunrise Point chipset. The pre-built configuration comes with an Intel Core i3-6100T. Dimensions of 173mm x 176mm x 33mm make it ECS's biggest LIVA yet. Subjectively speaking, the unit feels quite solid in hand, thanks to the metal exterior (only the top panel is plastic). The industrial design is also quite pleasing. The unit can be oriented either vertically or horizontally, with perforations set up to aid proper airflow in either orientation.

In addition to the main unit picture at the top of the page, the LIVA One package contains a 90W (19V @ 4.74A) power adapter, a Type-C (Male) to Type-A (Female) USB 3.1 cable (for use with the USB 3.1 Type-C port in the front panel), a VESA mount as well as a vertical orientation mount (along with the necessary screws), a quick installation guide (particularly useful with barebones configurations), a user guide and a support DVD with the necessary drivers.

The gallery below takes us around the package / chassis and its various features. Important aspects to note regarding the internal configuration include support for up to two DDR3L SO-DIMMs (the preconfigured unit comes with only one slot populated, allowing end users to upgrade the RAM, but, in the meanwhile, sacrificing some out-of-the-box performance) and support for both 2.5" and M.2 drives (both are SATA based). On the front side, we have a microSD slot along with a USB 3.1 Type-C port (enabled by the ASMedia ASM1142 USB 3.1 xHCI Controller, which takes up two PCIe lanes on the PCH). The rear panel is filled with different ports targeting a variety of use-cases - we even have a COM port for industrial applications.Other than that, we have the standard full-sized Display Port 1.2, VGA and HDMI 1.4a video outputs. A micrphone / headphone connector, a GbE RJ-45 port, a Kensington lock slot and four USB 3.0 ports round out the I/O connections on the rear side. One of the four USB 3.0 slots can support current delivery of up to 2.6A, enabling the connection of ECS's custom SF-Plus 'HD-Drive bay' that can be used to add either an optical drive or another 2.5" drive.

The specifications of our ECS LIVA One review configuration are summarized in the table below. The specifications indicate suitability as a powerful mini-PC for home users. It also targets industrial and business use-cases (i.e, small firms that don't need vPro support).

ECS LIVA One Specifications
Processor	Intel Core i3-6100T (2C/4T Skylake x86 @ 3.2 GHz, 14nm, 3 MB L2, 35W TDP)
Memory	1x 8GB DDR3L-1600
Graphics	Intel HD Graphics 530
Disk Drive(s)	80GB Intel SSD 530 M.2 SATA SSD (SSDSCKGW080A4)
Networking	1x 1GbE Realtek RTL8168 + 1x1 Realtek 8821AE 802.11ac
Audio	Capable of 5.1/7.1 digital output with HD audio bitstreaming (HDMI)
Operating System	Retail unit is barebones, but we installed Windows 10 Pro x64 (10586)
Pricing (As configured)	$450
Full Specifications	Full Specifications

The ECS LIVA One kit doesn't come with any pre-installed OS, but does come with a DVD containing the drivers. In any case, we ended up installing the latest drivers downloaded off ECS's product support page. While Windows 10 (10586) comes with the drivers for the WLAN adapter, Windows 8.1 needs the driver to be installed manually. The UEFI BIOS is also quite functional (though, as expected, we don't have too much control over the clocking aspects). The gallery below takes us around the various options available in the BIOS. All the benchmarking was performed with the 'optimized defaults' setting.

In the table below, we have an overview of the various systems that we are comparing the ECS LIVA One against. Note that they may not belong to the same market segment. The relevant configuration details of the machines are provided so that readers have an understanding of why some benchmark numbers are skewed for or against the ECS LIVA One when we come to those sections.

Comparative PC Configurations
Aspect	ECS LIVA One	ECS LIVA OneIntel D54250WYKHECS LIVA CoreASRock Vision HT 321BGIGABYTE GB-BXi7H-5500GIGABYTE GB-BXi7-4500Intel NUC5i5RYK (Mainstream)
CPU	Intel Core i3-6100T	Intel Core i3-6100T
GPU	Intel HD Graphics 530	Intel HD Graphics 530
RAM	A-Data AM1L16BC8R2-B1XS 11-11-11-28 @ 1600 MHz 1x8 GB	A-Data AM1L16BC8R2-B1XS 11-11-11-28 @ 1600 MHz 1x8 GB
Storage	Intel SSD 530 Series SSDSCKGW080A4 (80 GB; M.2 Type 2280 SATA 6Gb/s; 20nm; MLC)	Intel SSD 530 Series SSDSCKGW080A4 (80 GB; M.2 Type 2280 SATA 6Gb/s; 20nm; MLC)
Wi-Fi	Realtek 8821AE Wireless LAN 802.11ac (1x1 802.11ac - 433 Mbps)	Realtek 8821AE Wireless LAN 802.11ac (1x1 802.11ac - 433 Mbps)
Price (in USD, when built)	$450	$450

Performance Metrics - I

The ECS LIVA One 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 i3-6100T has a TDP of 35W, and therefore, the ECS LIVA One is definitely expected to be amongst the top performers in our list of comparable PCs (most of which use CPUs with TDPs of around 15W). However, we see a few interesting aspects here - the GIGABYTE GB-BXi7H-5500 manages to score better in almost all of the benchmarks. This is due to a couple of reasons - GIGABYTE sets the TDP limit of the Core i7-5500U in the BRIX unit to 28W, which is very close to the 35W of the Core i3-6100T in the ECS LIVA One. The other reason is the availability of extra cache (4MB) in the i7-5500U compared to the 3MB in the Skylake CPU being used in the ECS LIVA One. In addition, as we shall see later too, the Core i3-6100T prioritizes CPU performance compared to GPU performance within the available thermal envelope. Therefore, the ECS LIVA One doesn't emerge out on top in the GPU-centric benchmarks. The single-channel memory in the pre-built configuration also leaves some performance on the table.

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 ECS LIVA One manages to fare very well, particularly in the CPU-based tests. The single-threaded performance of the i3-6100T is obviously better - newer Skylake microarchitecture, higher clocks and the larger thermal headroom all combine to make the ECS LIVA One the best in both the single-threaded and multi-threaded 3D rendering benchmarks.

Performance Metrics - II

In this section, we mainly look at benchmark modes in programs used on a day-to-day basis, i.e, application performance and not synthetic workloads.

x264 Benchmark

First off, we have some video encoding benchmarks courtesy of x264 HD Benchmark v5.0. This is simply a test of CPU performance. As expected, the Core i3-6100T emerges the winner by a big margin for the same reasons that it came out in front in the CPU-based Cinebench R15 3D rendering tests.

7-Zip

7-Zip is a very effective and efficient compression program, often beating out OpenCL accelerated commercial programs in benchmarks even while using just the CPU power. 7-Zip has a benchmarking program that provides tons of details regarding the underlying CPU's efficiency. In this subsection, we are interested in the compression and decompression MIPS ratings when utilizing all the available threads. Again, the ECS LIVA One emerges as the winner due to the presence of the Core i3-6100T

TrueCrypt

As businesses (and even home consumers) become more security conscious, the importance of encryption can't be overstated. The Core i3-6100T supports AES-NI instructions for accelerating the encryption and decryption processes. TrueCrypt, a popular open-source disk encryption program (that has since seen development discontinued) can take advantage of the AES-NI capabilities. The TrueCrypt internal benchmark provides some interesting cryptography-related numbers to ponder. In the graph below, we can get an idea of how fast a TrueCrypt volume would behave in the ECS LIVA One and how it would compare with other select PCs. This is a purely CPU feature / clock speed based test.

Agisoft Photoscan

Agisoft PhotoScan is a commercial program that converts 2D images into 3D point maps, meshes and textures. The program designers sent us a command line version in order to evaluate the efficiency of various systems that go under our review scanner. The command line version has two benchmark modes, one using the CPU and the other using both the CPU and GPU (via OpenCL). The benchmark takes around 50 photographs and does four stages of computation:

• Stage 1: Align Photographs
• Stage 2: Build Point Cloud (capable of OpenCL acceleration)
• Stage 3: Build Mesh
• Stage 4: Build Textures

We record the time taken for each stage. Since various elements of the software are single threaded, others multithreaded, and some use GPUs, it is interesting to record the effects of CPU generations, speeds, number of cores, DRAM parameters and the GPU using this software. These results are similar to the Futuremark benchmarks, as the memory configuration can result in a huge impact on the scores. With a single-channel configuration, the ECS LIVA One is at a disadvantage even when the other factors (newer microarchitecture, higher TDP etc.) are considered.

Dolphin Emulator

Wrapping up our application benchmark numbers is the Dolphin Emulator benchmark mode results. This is again a test of the CPU capabilities, and the ECS LIVA One emerges as the winner by a huge margin.

Networking and Storage Performance

Networking and storage are two major aspects which influence our experience with any computing system. This section presents results from our evaluation of these aspects in the ECS LIVA One. On the storage side, one option would be repetition of our strenuous SSD review tests on the drive(s) in the PC. Fortunately, to avoid that overkill, PCMark 8 has a storage bench where certain common workloads such as loading games and document processing are replayed on the target drive. Results are presented in two forms, one being a benchmark number and the other, a bandwidth figure. We ran the PCMark 8 storage bench on selected PCs and the results are presented below.

The ECS LIVA One suffers primarily due to its capacity point (80GB) which prevents the Sandforce SF-2281 controller from providing top-of-the-line performance. To be frank, we also feel that the SF-2281 has been around for quite some time now and it is time to look beyond it for the newer generation SSDs. Despite Intel's validation of the same in the SSD 530 series, other SSDs based on controllers from vendors like Silicon Motion, Phison or Marvell may provide better performance and peace of mind (particularly when issues that have surrounded SandForce SSDs in the past are taken into account).

On the networking side, we restricted ourselves to the evaluation of the WLAN component. Our standard test router is the Netgear R7000 Nighthawk configured with both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz networks. The router is placed approximately 20 ft. away, separated by a drywall (as in a typical US building). A wired client (Zotac ID89-Plus) is connected to the R7000 and serves as one endpoint for iPerf evaluation. The PC under test is made to connect to either the 5 GHz (preferred) or 2.4 GHz SSID and iPerf tests are conducted for both TCP and UDP transfers. It is ensured that the PC under test is the only wireless client for the Netgear R7000. We evaluate total throughput for up to 32 simultaneous TCP connections using iPerf and present the highest number in the graph below.

In the UDP case, we try to transfer data at the highest rate possible for which we get less than 1% packet loss.

The NUC5i5RYK configuration uses a 2x2 implementation, and, as expected, gets much better performance compared to the other PCs in the graph. The ECS LIVA One, LIVA Core and the Broadwell-U BRIX are the only ones using a 1x1 802.11ac configuration. While the LIVA One uses the Realtek 8821AE chipset, the LIVA Core uses the Intel 802.11ac 1x1 AC3165 solution and the Broadwell-U BRIX uses the AC3160. Surprisingly, the Realtek 8821AE gets the best performance of the lot. In fact, the performance is much better compared to the other 8821AE-equipped PCs we have seen before (such as the LIVA X2) that are not in the above graph.

HTPC Credentials

Unlike the earlier LIVA units, the LIVA One is not fanless. However, the design and size are such that any noise from the internal fan is attenuated in a good manner. It might not be completely silent, but, subjectively speaking, it is a good enough solution for media playback in the average household. The media playback pipeline in Skylake is also much improved, leading to lower power consumption and fan noise for most HTPC activities. With the acoustics discussion out of the way, we now move on to the discussion of other HTPC aspects.

Refresh Rate Accurancy

Starting with Haswell, Intel, AMD and NVIDIA have been on par with respect to display refresh rate accuracy. The most important refresh rate for videophiles is obviously 23.976 Hz (the 23 Hz setting). As expected, the ECS LIVA One has no trouble with refreshing the display appropriately in this setting.

The gallery below presents some of the other refresh rates that we tested out. The first statistic in madVR's OSD indicates the display refresh rate.

Network Streaming Efficiency

Evaluation of OTT playback efficiency was done by playing back our standard YouTube test stream and five minutes from our standard Netflix test title. Using HTML5, the YouTube stream plays back a 1080p AVC encode. Since YouTube now defaults to HTML5 for video playback, we have stopped evaluating Adobe Flash acceleration. The following graph shows the power consumption at the wall for playback of the HTML5 stream in Mozilla Firefox (v 44.0).

Intel has not yet publicly released APIs to track the appropriate GPU loading for media decode use-cases. The current D3D Usage metric reported by various third-party tools all represent the EU load, which fails to give a proper picture of the overall system impact. In any case, the GPU EU load was around 45.63% for the YouTube HTML5 stream.

Netflix streaming evaluation was done using the Windows 10 Netflix app. Manual stream selection is available (Ctrl-Alt-Shift-S) and debug information / statistics can also be viewed (Ctrl-Alt-Shift-D). Statistics collected for the YouTube streaming experiment were also collected here. On the EU usage front, it was quite obvious that lower resolution streams resulted in more EU usage for upscaling purposes. For example, the 480p stream consumed an average of 20% of the EU resources, while the 576p stream consumed around 6.36%. After the start of playback of the 720p stream, EU usage dropped down to 2.67%. For the 1080p version, the EU usage was negligible (< 0.1%), since the playback was being done on a 1080p60 display.

Decoding and Rendering Benchmarks

Since the ECS LIVA One happens to be the first Skylake mini-PC we are reviewing, we paid extra attention to our local file playback benchmarks. Prior to discussing them in detail, let us take a look at the capabilities of Intel HD Graphics 530 as exposed by DXVA Checker. We already know from our discussion of Skylake's media capabilities that HEVC Main10 decode is implemented via hybrid acceleration (CPU + GPU). The report generated from the ECS LIVA One doesn't have surprises compared to what we reported in late August 2015 (except that VP9 gets a 4K decoding profile in the new drivers).

Coming back to our benchmarking, we evaluated playback of different test files in four different environments:

• MPC-HC 1.7.10 x86 with LAV Video Decoder 0.66.0 in DXVA 2 Native Mode with EVR-CP as the renderer
• MPC-HC 1.7.10 x86 with LAV Video Decoder 0.66.0 in Quick Sync Mode with EVR-CP as the renderer
• MPC-HC 1.7.10 x86 with LAV Video Decoder 0.66.0 in DXVA 2 Native Mode with madVR 0.90.3 as the renderer (default settings for all options except for DXVA2 Scaling)
• Kodi 16.0 RC 2 with all settings at default

In our earlier reviews, we focused on presenting the GPU loading and power consumption at the wall in a table (with problematic streams in bold). Starting with the Broadwell NUC review, we decided to represent the GPU load and power consumption in a graph with dual Y-axes. Nine different test streams of 90 seconds each were played back with a gap of 30 seconds between each of them. The characteristics of each stream are annotated at the bottom of the graph. Note that the GPU usage is graphed in red and needs to be considered against the left axis, while the at-wall power consumption is graphed in green and needs to be considered against the right axis.

Frame drops are evident whenever the GPU load consistently stays above the 85 - 90% mark. The graphs present some interesting information. We are primarily handicapped by the fact that the only GPU loading numbers that we can record using third-party tools is the EU load and not the load on the MFX (dedicated codec block) or other dedicated video post processing units.

In the DXVA2 native mode, we believe the decoding is not an issue at all four our test streams. However, the post-processing comes into focus a bit. With deinterlacing and upscaling requirements (480i60 to 1080p60), it seems as if the EUs are oversubscribed by the EVR-CP renderer. At this point of time, I am not sure if the drivers are to blame, or the EVR-CP renderer code needs to adapt itself to Skylake. We have had numerous Intel iGPU systems from before that have had no trouble deinterlacing and upscaling 480i60 content to 1080p60.

The Quick Sync decode mode with EVR-CP, on the other hand, doesn't exhibit the deinterlacing / upscaling issue for 480i60 content. This could be due to deinterlacing being completely out of the hands of the EUs in this particular setup. However, the high frame rate content, for some reason, seems to stress the EUs more. 1080p60 and 4Kp30 were unwatchable with heavy frame drops in this setup. Again, we believe it is more of an issue with the drivers / software, rather than the hardware itself.

madVR, with DXVA scaling, on the other hand, works beautifully for almost all our test streams. The only exception was the 4Kp30 stream which had  frequent frame drops. The EU loading doesn't seem to indicate any issues, and we believe with more careful tuning of the madVR options, it should be possible to get flawless playback of the 4Kp30 content also using this configuration.

Kodi 16.0 RC 2 has no issues with any of our test streams. Obviously, in the default configuration, it doesn't provide good deinterlacing or other post processing options like madVR or, even, EVR-CP. However, it suffices for most casual users.

On the whole, media playback is a bit of a mixed bag with respect to the Skylake platform in the ECS LIVA One. Drivers might need fixing, while ths software might also need to evolve appropriately.

One of the aspects I wish to clarify in our video decoding and rendering benchmarks is the absence of any HEVC clips in our test suite. In addition to waiting for widespread adoption (i.e, the licensing issues currently being played out with the MPEG-LA, HEVC Advance and others), we also want to coincide HEVC playback evaluation with a shift in our HTPC testbed from a 1080p display to a 4K one.

Power Consumption and Thermal Performance

The power consumption at the wall was measured with a 1080p display being driven through the HDMI port. In the graphs below, we compare the idle and load power of the ECS LIVA One with other low power PCs evaluated before. For load power consumption, we ran Furmark 1.12.0 and Prime95 v27.9 together.

The idle power is quite high compared to the other machines primarily due to two factors - the CPU being used is a proper desktop CPU (not a ULV one) and the ASMedia USB 3.1 host controller chip consumes around 1.5W by itself, even when idle. Considering these aspects, the ECS LIVA One idling at around 11W is not a surprise at all.

Similar arguments extend to the load power consumption. The Core i3-6100T has a TDP of 35W, while the next system in the above graph (the Broadwell BRIX) has its CPU configured for a 28W TDP. Considering the power consumption from the RAM and other motherboard components, the 51W figure is quite plausible.

Our thermal stress routine starts with the system at idle, followed by 30 minutes of pure CPU loading. This is followed by another 30 minutes of both CPU and GPU being loaded simultaneously. After this, the CPU load gets removed, allowing the GPU to be loaded alone for another 30 minutes. The various clocks in the system as well as the temperatures within the unit are presented below.

The BIOS indicates that the junction temperature of the Core i3-6100T is 100C. We find that the cooling solution manages to keep the CPU around 80C even under full loading conditions. Interestingly, with the CPU and GPU both active, the temperature comes down even though the CPU cores as well as the GPU are running at the maximum clocks (3.2 GHz and 950 MHz respectively). Within a hour of the load being removed, the CPU goes back to the idling temperature of around 32C. We didn't observe any kind of throttling during our thermal stress tests.

Another important aspect to keep note of while evaluating mini-PCs is the chassis temperature. Using the Android version of the FLIR One thermal imager, we observed the chassis temperature after the CPU package temperature reached the steady state value in the above graph.

We have additional thermal images in the gallery below.

The thermal solution is impressive, and the active cooling helps quite a bit in keeping the chassis temperature down. In fact, the highest chassis surface temperature we observed was only around 48 C. Since the cooling solution remove the heat using a fan instead of using the chassis as a heat sink (common in passively cooled PCs), it is not surprising that the chassis doesn't get very hot even when the system is subject to heavy loading.

Final Words

The ECS LIVA One provided us with the opportunity to evaluate Skylake in a mini-PC configuration. Small form factor PCs that can be VESA-mounted on the back of a display are understandably popular, and the LIVA class of products from ECS caters to this market segment as an alternative to the standard NUCs. With the addition of the LIVA One, ECS has introduced a very high performance level compared to the Atom-based and Core M-based levels existing previously. The LIVA One brings about a number of interesting advantages:

• The use of a LGA socketed CPU allows for end users to upgrade or even choose their own CPUs (in the case of barebone configurations)
• The SF-Plus add-on (using one of the USB 3.0 ports for bridging to the main system) provides an interesting way to augment the system without altering the form factor in a major way
• The integration of a COM port in the chassis lends itself to industrial use-cases.
• The pricing (around $450) is in the same ballpark as that of the LIVA Core (using a Core M processor) - for those who do not require a fanless PC, it is a no-brainer to go with the Skylake-based LIVA One.
• The thermal solution, despite being active, is relatively silent and gets the job done perfectly.

ECS has done a lot of things right with the LIVA One (as described above), but there are a few aspects that could do with some improvement.

• The microSD slot (enabled by a Realtek USB 2.0 card reader chip) should be replaced with a full-sized SDHC card slot (one should note that microSD cards can be used in those with a passive adapter, but the reverse situation is not possible).
• The chassis is not straightforward to open up. The D-Sub (VGA) port's side screws need to be removed with a non-standard screwdriver in order to gain access to the system's internals. We believe it is not necessary for the VGA port to be fastened on to the chassis itself.
• A smaller power brick (or, even better, a wall wart design like the one used by the recent NUCs) would be nice to have
• Premium systems like the LIVA One and the LIVA Core should go with an Intel NIC instead of a Realtek NIC for wired networking purposes.
• The three non-bridging USB 3.0 Type-A ports could do with a better spread around the chassis (maybe one on the side, or even in the front panel)

We will not fault ECS for going with single-channel memory in the preconfigured system. End users can always add another SODIMM to boost the memory capacity. Obviously, it would be nice to have faster pre-installed memory (say, 9-9-9-24 compared to the current 11-11-11-28), but that is a minor issue. We are also not very enthusiastic about the SandForce-based SSD choice. But, the good news is that the end-user can always add a 2.5" drive or replace the 80GB M.2 SSD with their own storage media.

Coming to Skylake itself, I have to say that I am very disappointed with a couple of aspects. The media playback ecosystem (drivers / software) issue is one that I have already discussed in the HTPC Credentials section. The other is related to the travails we went through while getting this review processed. While the benchmarks themselves might not convey the story, our first pass with the shipped unit gave performance numbers around 20 - 30% lower than what we finally published. Since we didn't have a clear inkling of what the performance would be, the numbers didn't seem amiss. It was only when we started tracking power consumption numbers that we realized something fishy was afoot. The system was idling at 23 W, and closer attention to the system operation revealed that the CPU was held hostage by the Windows 10 Diagnostic Policy Service process to the tune of 50% (ensuring that the cores never went below 3.1 GHz). Long story short, it turned out that the issue was reproducible and the only solution was to migrate to Intel's latest BIOS (which, incidentally, also includes the fix for the bug exposed by Prime 95). ECS forwarded us the BIOS directly from Intel without internal testing, and that is what we had to use for the numbers presented here.

The absence of any credible competition in this space has resulted in Intel probably taking it a bit too easy when it comes to platform validation. Even 6 months after its release, it is surprising to see the Skylake platform having so many user-visible issues. Thankfully, all of the problems reported so far seem to be fixable via BIOS updates. Hopefully, as time goes by, the Skylake platform becomes more mature.

Back to the ECS LIVA One, we can say that the mini-PC packs a lot of punch in an economical package with acceptable trade-offs. The introduction of the mSTX form factor and systems like the LIVA One will serve to expand the market for DIY PC builders.Compared to the NUC form factor machines, the pre-configured version of the ECS LIVA One provides much better CPU performance at a lower price point.