An alternative to the Intel NUC from ECS EliteGroup
ECS, or EliteGroup Computer Systems, first became a recognised brand before AMD launched the Athlon, and ECS made some affordable motherboards for that platform. It grew to become the fifth-largest maker of motherboards, with production facilities in Asia and North America directed from a headquarters in Taiwan. These days ECS makes a wide range of devices that includes laptops, tablets, Motherboards, IoT products, and our review item today, mini-PCs. Following Intel’s new Jasper Lake powered NUC systems, ECS has launched the LIVA Z3 and Z3E series, small affordable PCs with enough power for general office activities. But with the low cost and performance of current desktop systems, is the Z3 worth the extra cost to get something so small and silent? ECS offers three versions of the LIVA Z3 that look much the same from the outside but internally have subtle internal differences regarding the processor, RAM and storage options. The cheapest has the Celeron N4500 CPU,4GB of RAM and 64GB of eMMC storage, and it sells for £252 in the UK and $194.88 on Amazon.com. For £276, you can upgrade that to a Celeron N5100 processor with the same RAM and storage. And the top specification, Z3, is the one reviewed here, costs £300 in the UK and comes with the Pentium Silver N6000 processor and 128GB of eMMC storage, but still 4GB of RAM. We found the exact specification on Newegg.com for $226. Why comparatively the Z3 cost so much more in Europe isn’t obvious, but it’s a better deal for those living in America. When Intel created the NUC specification, they left relatively little elbow room for system makers to colour outside the lines, and the Z3 follows those guidelines precisely.
