[conspire] Small, low power ECS systems on sale at newegg at up to 47% off

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Leo P (yaconsult at gmail.com):

> Regarding the earlier discussion of small, low power systems, Newegg is
> currently having a sale on ECS systems.  While it says "limited offer",
> unfortunately it does not give the date that the sale prices end.
> 
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=ECS+LIVA&N=4817&isNodeId=1
> 
> There is a detailed review of one of these models here:
> http://www.legitreviews.com/ecs-liva-mini-pc-kit-review_149091

It's an interesting class of machine (the ECS LIVA series) if you don't
mind something even more hardware-limited than the Intel NUC.  Make
that, even more interesting than the NUC was at its most limited.

The key things to note are:

RAM:  2GB (non-expandable)
Storage:  32 or 64GB of flash (eMMC)
SoC: Intel BayTrail-M
Cooling: passive only (heatsink)
Ethernet:  RTL8168/8111
Wireless:  can be added by adding a wireless card to the M.2 slot, 
  or use the bundled M.2-type card that's based on a Broadcom BCM43142.

The real question is:  What's it useful for?  I see this class of
machine as an adequate WAP or SOHO network gateway _if_ the relevant
chipsets have reasonable and open source Linux support, which I haven't
checked.  One of the comments to the legitreviews.com pages says that
the BCM43142-based wireless card has no Linux support, so any wireless
use on Linux would require buying a replacement M.2 card such as the
Intel one mentioned in the review.

(Not sure about SOHO gateway unless you can do without wired ethernet on
the house side, as the LIVA serious has only one wired NIC.)

Another commenter on the legitreviews.com pages says Linux Mint went
onto it with no problems but that there's no Linux driver for the
RealTek RTL8168/8111 ethernet chip, requiring a replacement Intel car
for _that_ part of the unit, too.