Introduction

ECS may not have the DIY presence it once had in the motherboard and graphic card markets, but that doesn't mean the company doesn't produce many products you use. Founded in 1987, the company has been manufacturing PCs, laptops, and motherboards, among other electronic devices. Meanwhile, while they have in recent years moved away from the consumer market regarding DIY PC components, such as motherboards and graphics cards, they still produce many Mini-PCs and other devices for consumers directly. Overall, while not a household name like ASUS or MSI, ECS continues to show a great deal of adaptability and seems to have found its niche market consumer side while also being a go-to manufacturer for other distributors and companies.


In today's review, I focus on the ECS LIVA Q3 Plus; now representing the third generation of the LIVA Q series, we see a relatively substantial upgrade in specifications, which also means higher costs. Still, when you consider the LIVA Q2 we reviewed had an Intel Celeron N4000 with just 4 GB of memory and 32 GB of eMMC storage, the LIVA Q3 boasts an AMD Ryzen V1605B, which is based on Raven Ridge and uses the Zen architecture. This processor is a quad-core CPU, with SMT giving it eight threads, and uses a Vega 8-based IGP to handle graphics. The system reviewed today is outfitted with 8 GB of DDR4 memory and 64 GB of eMMC storage; however, multiple versions are available at different price points. Either way, its overall dimensions of 74 x 74 x 52.1 mm make it a truly tiny yet fully functional system.