At first we would like to thank ECS for sending out a sample of their LIVA Q3 Plus Mini-PC for testing and reviewing.

 

 

 

About ECS:

 

“Founded in 1987, ECS, the Elitegroup Computer Systems, is a top-notch manufacturer and supplier of several families of computer products in the industry. With almost 30 years of experience, ECS not only produces high-quality products such as motherboards, desktops, notebook computers, graphics cards and other mobile products, but also provides customized computer programming and hardware/ software design service for a wide variety of customers.

More than two decades, ECS has overcome a great deal of obstacles encountering new businesses and has experienced the joy of significant growth and development. ECS is strongly committed to develop cutting-edge technology in order to generate innovative products under environmental friendly designs. ECS comprehensive system of quality control provides our clients with reassurance and fosters long term cooperation.”

 

Product Features:

Small Outside, Powerful Inside

Smaller than a mouse, LIVA Q3 Plus features the AMD Ryzen Embedded V1605B APU. The V1605B is a 4-core/8-thread SoC with 15W thermal design power (TDP) and incredible performance that sets a new standard in processing power for next-generation embedded designs. The internal GPU can offer up to 47% performance improvement compared to competitors’ product.

See More, Do More

LIVA Q3 Plus supports up to 2 independent displays through its HDMI/ mini-DisplayPort. Giving you the flexibility to expand the desktop workspace and multitask on two displays without any limitation.

Stay Cool and Reliable

Despite its compact dimensions, LIVA Q3 Plus designs to feature an internal cooling fan to prevent overheating. It can keep your system stay cool and more reliable.

Micro SD Slot for Extend Storage

LIVA Q3 Plus offers best C/P Micro SD extend storage solution, you can easily have big space to storage your treasure photos and movies.

 

Product Specifications:

Platform: AMD Ryzen™ Embedded V1605B (2.0GHz, 4 CORES) - TDP 15W

Memory: DDR4 2400 MT/s 8GB

Storage Devices: eMMC 64GB

Networking: 1 x Gigabit LAN

USB: 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 1x1

1 x USB 2.0 Port

Video Output: 1 x HDMI 2.0 Port (up to 4K@60Hz & CEC function)

1 x mini-DisplayPort 1.4

Wireless: Intel® Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n/ac & Bluetooth 4.1

Weight: 359g

Dimensions (mm): 74mm * 74mm * 52.1mm

Power: Input: AC 100-240V

Output: DC 12V / 3A

OS Support: Windows 10 Pro 64bit

VESA Mount: Supports 75mm / 100mm

Remark: Operating: 0° C ~ +40° C

Storage: -20° C ~ +80° C

Operating: 10% ~ 95% @ 40° C non-condensing

Storage: 10% ~ 95% @ 40° C

Bundle: ADAPTER / SCREW / VESA MOUNT / QUICK GUIDE

 

In this article we will concentrate our attention upon another unique mini-PC, this time coming from ECS. It takes part of the LIVA series we have reviewed before, but this time it is the Q3 Plus generation and packs an AMD-based solution. To be more exact, it comes with the AMD Ryzen Embedded V1605B, a quad-core / eight thread SoC with AMD Vega 8 integrated graphics, 8GB of DDR4 RAM at 2400MHz but also 64GB of eMMC Flash storage. The retail version of the product doubles the eMMC Flash quantity, so we will have enough space for installing the needed applications; on a side note, storage can be expanded with a microSDXC card, 1TB maximum of storage space.

 

The mini-PC is also named as being pocket-sized by ECS and they do not make any mistake in this regard! On the top cover we will be reminded of the AMD platform and HDMI interface but also of the preinstalled Windows 10 OS; on our sample though, Windows 10 OS was not pre-activated:

 

 

 

The technical specifications are also present on the side:

 

 

 

On the small cover sticker, ECS has noted the exact specs of the sample SKU:

 

 

 

After unsealing the box and lifting the top cover, we will get to see that the VESA mount is placed right on top:

 

 

 

Besides the said mount, we will also receive fixing screws and a power adapter with interchangeable power plugs (US/UK/EU):

 

 

 

On the VESA mount we will find an arrow, indicating the correct mounting position:

 

 

 

 

The power adapter was manufactured by Asian Power Devices and can output a maximum of 36W:

 

 

 

By using the sliding mechanism, we can easily remove/install the power plugs:

 

 

 

The adapter cable ends up with a small jack plug:

 

 

 

The ECS LIVA Q3 Plus is small and retains a fashionable design as well to fit the rest of your media-center components. The top cover helps with intake of cold air and comes with a white LIVA logo as well:

 

 

 

 

The frontal area comes with a dotted design on the upper area, a Power button and LED (white), two USB 3.2 Gen1 and one USB 2.0. The USB 3.2 Gen1 ports are easily identifiable by their color:

 

 

 

On the right side, we do have an air exhaust but also a Kensington lock port:

 

 

 

In the back, we do have a HDMI 2.0 port with 4K@60Hz capability, a LAN port, one mini DisplayPort 1.4 but also a DC-IN power jack:

 

 

 

The left side comes with the microSD slot but also another exhaust ventilation grill:

 

 

 

On the bottom, the LIVA Q3 Plus comes with four screws holding the chassis together (surrounded by rubber grommets to act as feet as well), the mounting holes for the VESA mount, the product serial number but also a Windows 10 authenticity sticker:

 

 

 

By unscrewing the feet, we will be able to lift the top plastic shroud completely and expose the sandwiched PCB design:

 

 

 

The bottom layer of the PCB comes with a soldered WiFi card manufactured by Qualcomm, and to be more exact the QCA6174 802.11ac adapter with MU-MIMO and Bluetooth 5.0 support.

 

 

 

 

The cooling system includes a solid copper heatsink but also a 60mm fan; the lateral views does show how the main PCB and the daughterboard are joined together:

 

 

 

 

 

 

The BIOS carries the Aptio Setup Utility GUI and not a lot of options are available for configuration (expected from a mini-PC of this size). The Main menu area allows adjusting the interface language, but also the date/time:

 

 

The Advanced area comes with multiple sub-sections:

 

 

The LAN Configuration page allows the user to enable/disable the LAN controller but also the WiFi card:

 

 

Next, we do have the power management related options:

 

 

The EC H/W monitor menu allows the user to set the fan profile, but also enable or disable CEC/EUP functions; CEC is particularly useful when using the LIVA Q3 Plus as a media center, because it will turn on and off along with the TV:

 

 

The CPU Configuration is displayed in the next menu and here we will learn about the CPU VID, speed ranges, CPUID and more! SVM Mode can be also turned on from here:

 

 

USB Configuration menu is blank for some reason:

 

 

In the Trusted Computing menu, we have the TPM-related options (TPM 2.0 compliant), useful for Windows 11 installation:

 

 

The Chipset area comes with two more sub-sections:

 

 

The North Bridge menu allows the user to set how much RAM should be allocated for the iGPU but also turn on the Input-output memory management unit:

 

 

The South Bridge menu comes with an option which should be available in the Power Management area instead:

 

 

M.I.B. X is usually the area used by ECS for system tuning options; in this case, we only have the info about the CPU (displayed earlier as well) but also info on the total installed memory:

 

 

The Security area allows working with Secure Boot menu (also good for Windows 11 compatibility):

 

 

The Boot menu comes with the usual options:

 

 

From the Exit area, we can choose to save, discard or load user defaults; a save slot is available as well!

 

 

With the help of AIDA64 reporting tool, we have extracted some more details on the test system:

 

CPU

Motherboard

IMC

Fusion Controller Hub

Network Adapters

iGPU

Audio Devices

 

AIDA64

 

Cinebench R15

 

 

 

Blender Ryzen Render

 

 

PCMark 7

 

 

PCMark 8

 

 

SuperPI XS [2M]

 

X265 Benchmark 1080P 64-bit Normal

 

 

GeekBench 4

 

 

3DMark Vantage

 

 

3DMark 2013

 

 

Tomb Raider

Andrenaline Action Benchmark Presets

 

Hitman: Absolution

Andrenaline Action Benchmark Presets

 

Sleeping Dogs

Andrenaline Action Benchmark Presets

The LIVA Q3 Plus mini-PC from ECS did not disappoint us at all, incorporating a capable piece of hardware in a very small chassis. The system feels snappy in most usage environments, the only slowness we have noticed being during application installs, due to usage of eMMC. Thanks to the solid copper piece on the top and active cooling, the temperature at highest loads is well within safe margins, while the computer remains almost as silent as in IDLE mode.

 

To be more exact, when recording with a sound meter 30 cm away a run with AIDA64 stress test, we noted 30.5 dBA at IDLE and only 36.1 dBA at full load, which is quite impressive! Here are the temperatures as well:

 

 

 

The test figures do also show that at low loads, the CPU frequency will spike to 2GHz, while at high, maximum loads it will go down to about 1.580Ghz, in order not to exceed the whole package power consumption of 15W. Talking about power consumption, we also have very good info! In IDLE, the LIVA Q3 Plus will only take about 6.41W, while in full load we have recorded only about 26.6W.

 

The unit comes with a stylish chassis design, a decent amount of connectivity options and while our test unit was equipped with only 64GB of storage, the retail ones do come with 128GB, in order to alleviate some problems. However, if you count in the microSD slot where you can install a card with a capacity up to 1TB, the storage space is much less problematic!

 

The mini-PC does support TPM 2.0, Secure Boot, but the SoC is not currently supported by Windows 11. You can however successfully upgrade to it with the scripts laying around and we can say that it works perfectly on the new OS as well.

 

The Liva Q3 Plus does well with playing 4K video files but struggles a bit in newer games, even if powered by Vega 8 iGPU, due to power constraints. However, older titles (oldies but goodies) should run just fine.

 

We haven’t found the unit readily available in Europe, so we cannot communicate a price at the moment.

ECS LIVA Q3 Plus Mini-PC is Recommended for:

 

 

 

We would like to thank again to ECS for making this review possible!