ECS LIVA

[Chuckleb]

NewEgg has this tiny system on sale for $132 through the end of the month and it's interesting. It's about the cheapest PC you can get that comes with memory, disk, and wifi. I like the NUCs but they are barebones.

ECS LIVA 2GB DDR3L RAM installed Mini / Booksize Barebone System - Newegg.com

So, ordering one and it does have some interesting potentials. I actually wanted to install a Windows server core backup AD controller on here since I like to dink around with my virtualized systems and storage too much. Think this would work?

Otherwise I'll have to find some other use for it. Quiet and low power.

 

[sboesch]

That would make for a great little DC. I may have to jump on that.

 

[nry]

Interesting! Wonder how well it would handle blu-ray playback.
At that size would potentially make a brilliant media pc!

 

[BackWoodsTech]

Hmm...I live off the grid...could this be answer for a low-power Plex server? (Strictly for pushing out music to myself only).

 

[Chuckleb]

I think it's amazing for the price since it is a full system for that price. The reviews are pretty good or seems and it is extremely low power as well (15W). People like it for the Media player. May work out as a router box a well, the USB 3 child work for a second NIC.

 

[Patrick]

I love this idea BTW and is why I have a few of the Intel Celeron 847 NUCs around. I have been toying with:
Amazon.com: Intel NUC DN2820FYKH with Intel Celeron N2820 , 2.5 inch HDD support: Computers & Accessories

The big things with the ECS are: is 32GB enough (and of slow eMMC) and is 2GB enough.

Finally, versus running VMs on the C2550/ C2558 does it make sense. Here is the funny bit: I actually have started to add more storage to my Hyper-V C2550 box because I have found more uses for it. It is now sitting at 32GB of RAM and has three SSDs crammed in.

I do want to get much more content around these low power AIO's (or barebones) on the site soon.

BTW - When you get it: Ubuntu LiveCD -> linux-bench

 

[Chuckleb]

I figured you'd ask me to bench it. I think for a router it would be fine, maybe as a AD as well. I don't have as much exp on the windows side. they have a 64 GB coming out but at this cost, hard to say Mo. I was looking for low power and noise since I don't need much and didn't want bare bones adding up more cost.

Let's see how it runs in a couple days.

 

[RandyC]

I picked up one of these a few weeks ago from newegg when they were on sale for $152.

Run Ubuntu live USB on the USB 3.0. it loaded very quickly and was very smooth.
Still haven't decided on what to do with it yet. I was actually thinking of using it as an SSH jumpbox at remote sites, and maybe Zabbix proxy or Puppet proxy.

You do have to attach the bluetooth and wireless antenna inside the small case, and then attach a M.2 wireless card to the antenna wires.

I just bought a second one after I saw the sale for $132.

I will run Linux bench when I get home.

 

[Chuckleb]

So just checking, do all the parts come with it or will I need to order the wireless card, etc? It looked like everything was there. Thanks for the info BTW, I may have to pick up another one. I think the only thing left for this to be ideal would be an OOB management card, but one can only dream.

This will probably be more useful than my Raspberry Pi.

You do have to attach the bluetooth and wireless antenna inside the small case, and then attach a M.2 wireless card to the antenna wires.

I just bought a second one after I saw the sale for $132.

I will run Linux bench when I get home.

 

[Chuckleb]

Found an interesting review of the device. Idles at 3W, their test load at 5W. HDD speeds were usable for eMMC, 120MB/s read and 45MB/s writes. And yes, it looks like it comes with the wifi and everything. Should probably order a second before I regret not doing it.

ECS - Expert Recommend

 

[MiniKnight]

Found an interesting review of the device.

Very interesting. They are generating and hosting their own reviews now.

 

[Chuckleb]

Heh, I was confused by that as well. You can reduce the amount of bad press this way

 

[BackWoodsTech]

@Patrick Yeah, I'd sure like to see some reviews on more devices like this. What's challenging for me is finding power consumption for these small devices. I mean, you can find TDP pretty easy but that's just part of the story. Unfortunately for me, I don't have the operating budget to buy test devices and break out a Kill A Watt meter. I may start another thread though as this device has certainly given me hope that I actually may find a low-power 24/7 device for some home server tasks and solar data logging at my off-grid residence.

 

[RandyC]

Can confirm that this comes with the wireless and Bluetooth antennas as well as the m.2 wireless card.

The best part about this is it is powered by a mini USB port.

I am running linux-bench on it right now and will post results.
I should have plugged my kill-a-watt into it before the run, oh well.

The power plug output is 5v 3A, so 15W would be the max.

 

[Patrick]

Very interested to see how this works. This is probably the lowest end config that Linux-Bench has been run on.

 

[RandyC]

Well, I had to start over. My screen kept going to sleep, and when I came back could not wake it.

On the plus side I plugged in my kill-a-watt. So far the highest draw I have seen while running linux-bench is 6 watts.

I believe the last run before I had to restart it was finished with the c-ray benchmarks.

This will definitely take about 3 hours to complete.

I ran "xset -dmsp" to disable the screen from going to sleep this time.

 

[MiniKnight]

I ran "xset -dmsp" to disable the screen from going to sleep this time.

Here's a trick I use (not on the site instructions though so ymmv)

from the terminal do:

sudo su -
apt-get install openssh-server -y
passwd (whatever the default user is I can't remember)

Then you can login via SSH and just run from the terminal even using a LiveCD. You need the password so you can actually login since there is no password on the default user when you try from LiveCD.

3 hours is faster than I'd expect from that CPU.

 

[Chuckleb]

Mine came in today. Problems installing Windows Server 2K12 R2, could be due to disk requirement. You have 29GB available of the 32GB that Microsoft recommends. This was the primary purpose so I may have to get a different unit. I made the mistake of trying Win 2K12 and now cannot rebuild the system. Stuck in an endless UEFI boot loop.. can't get to a legacy mode. Grr.

 

[Chuckleb]

OK, here is how to basically brick your ECS. I just spent about 3 hours trying to recover from a botched Win2k12 Server install. The install process partitioned and copied everything, but then wouldn't boot. So, decided to try Linux or anything. I cannot figure out how to make a good UEFI bootable media of any type, from a simple BIOS update disk to install of Windows 8 or 7.

Going to try again tomorrow but if not, back in the box it goes. I am not a fan of systems that can't go to legacy mode as I don't know how/why this UEFI boot causes so many problems. GRR.

Doesn't look too good so far for me. Linux or 8.1 first would have been fine probably. CentOS 7 didn't do too hot either.

 

[HellDiverUK]

Rufus is an excellent program to make UEFI bootable USB sticks. Works with everything I've tried, even fussy NUCs. Just supply a ISO, job jobbed.

Rufus - Create bootable USB drives the easy way