A look Inside

Taking the ECS LIVA Z2 apart is exceptionally easy, which is a very good thing. This is a unit anyone can service or upgrade. To gain access to the internals, simply unscrew the four bottom screws. The bottom plate can then be removed by lifting it and sliding it up and off. At this point, users can install the 2.5" HDD or SSD of their choice. If you plan to upgrade the memory, simply slide the HDD tray over and it will lift up and out of the way. Just be careful not to pull too hard on the thin ribbon cable.


A single screw in the center holds the motherboard in place after everything else has been moved out of the way. Removing this screw and detaching the cable near the DDR4 SODIMM slots will allow you to remove the mainboard. At this point, you can gently remove the mainboard. Just be careful in regards to the WiFi antenna wires. With everything disassembled and the mainboard removed, it becomes clear that ECS went with the largest aluminium heatsink they possibly could based on how much space is provided by the chassis. Removing the heatsink is simple as well: just squeeze the push pins and apply pressure and the heatsink will eventually pop free.


The single 4 GB SO-DIMM of DDR4 runs at a frequency of 2400 MHz with CL17 timings, and comes from Goldkey, a vendor I have not heard of before. That said, in today's world, 4 GB of memory is just not enough. ECS needs to populate these units with a dual channel 8 GB kit. It's not all bad, at least the memory can be upgraded since it is not soldered to the mainboard.