It hasn't been too long since I presented you the original LIVA mini PC on these pages. In that short time, much has changed in the LIVA design, so much so that although a lot of the functionality offered by the LIVA X is similar to that of its predecessor, the changes in the new LIVA X have a significant impact on how I feel about this product.

There can be no doubt that performance isn't a priority for the LIVA-X, and due to that, I haven't included any benchmarks. We get a slightly faster Intel N2808 instead of the N2806, which amounts to an overall speed boost of 12.5%. We also get a different Wi-Fi/Bluetooth card. Otherwise, more layout- and esthetic-specific changes are offered here, along with greater OS support, although that OS support does require you spend a bit more money on an mSATA SSD. That said, however, the needs of most users for digital signage purposes and adding "smart" capabilities to digital video panels (or replacing the existing option as with my own home theatre) are met. Personally, I have my LIVA-X attached to my 55-inch Sony TV with the VESA bracket, and all my digital media, including picture collections, video, and audio, reside on an external USB 3.0 drive that connects to the back of the LIVA X. When I get home from school, I can fire up my home theater to check my email, manage my Netflix queue, and maybe watch a bit of YouTube or check my social media accounts, all in the same way as on my main PC or my Surface Pro3 I carry with me to and from school. Thanks to many physical movie purchases now, including digital copies along with the Blu-rays I have bought, I've amassed quite the movie collection on my iTunes account, and I can watch it all with ease on my nice big TV. Given the cost of the LIVA X, it is irreplaceable to me, since doing so in the past required a full PC that didn't look as elegant while sitting in my living room, and it cost more, too. Those days are over now thanks to ECS and the LIVA X.

We can't forget about the digital signage possibilities either, or the fact that many office users would actually get an upgrade with a LIVA X as compared to the aging relics many of them are forced to deal with, and when you consider the completely silent operation of the LIVA X, it is hard to justify anything else as a reasonable expense to meet such needs. I mean sure, you can get a full-fledged NUC box and have more compute power at your disposal, and there are some pretty slick mITX cases out there that slide into an entertainment unit well, but those options cost significantly more than the LIVA X does, and that fact alone is reason enough to commend ECS for what they bring to the table here. Have you bought one yet....?