ECS LIVA Z7 Plus

Early Verdict

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30-second review

The erstwhile ECS LIVA instrumentality we covered was nan LIVA Z5 Plus,  a instrumentality which delivered immoderate fantabulous capacity from nan Intel Raptor Lake-U Core i5 1335U processor and DDR5 representation combination.

The LIVA Z7 Plus was intended to beryllium nan adjacent successful nan series, trading Raptor Lake-U for a Meteor Lake creation and nan Intel Core Ultra 5 125H.

But, for reasons undisclosed, this instrumentality won't beryllium hitting nan shelves for this Christmas, and perchance immoderate other, arsenic ECS has decided to region it from their LIVA Z bid lineup aft revealing it astatine this year's Computex.

That's a shame because this instrumentality offered nan classical NUC shape facet of 114mm quadrate and 54mm thick, but pinch room for a fourteen-core and eighteen-thread processor, up to 96GB of RAM, and dual M.2 NVMe drives.

It besides featured dual LAN ports, USB 4.0 and dual HDMI show outputs.

While we've nary thought what value this instrumentality was destined for, our capacity benchmarks mightiness explicate why nan LIVA Z7 Plus didn't subordinate nan different hardware successful that series, though it mightiness person been down to really overmuch Intel wanted for this silicon.

ECS LIVA Z7 Plus: Price and availability

• How overmuch does it cost?  Unknown
• When is it out? It whitethorn ne'er beryllium released
• Where tin you get it? You cannot bargain it

Inexplicably, wrong a period of receiving nan ECS LIVA Z7 Plus, it vanished from nan manufacturer's website. The web remnant support pages now say, "No longer for sale."

That was aft a fanfare motorboat astatine Computex successful May of 2024.

We asked ECS for an explanation, and we did not person 1 erstwhile we published this review.

ECS LIVA Z7 Plus: Specs

ECS LIVA Z7 Plus: Design

• Metal skinned
• Plenty of ports
• Relatively easy entree inside
• 2nd M.2 is 2242

Most ECS LIVA designs are akin successful layout, and nan Z7 Plus hasn't diverged from what we expect from this strategy builder.

This is simply a classical mid-height NUC pinch each nan ports connected nan beforehand aliases back, pinch nan sides allocated to airflow vents and a azygous information slot.

The sides and underside are painted metal, and nan apical is plastic, but this is only evident erstwhile you touch it since it has nan aforesaid decorativeness arsenic nan metallic parts.

Along pinch nan powerfulness button, nan beforehand has 5 USB ports, including 1 for Type-A and 1 for Type-C. The Type-C port, successful this instance, is simply a Gen 2x2 variety, meaning that this 1 instrumentality has 4 different USB standards that see USB 4.0, USB 2.0, Gen 2 and Gen 2x2.

Those expecting an SD paper scholar aliases moreover a cosmopolitan audio jack would beryllium disappointed pinch nan Z7 Plus because it has neither of those connected it.

The publication has dual LAN, dual USB 4.0, dual USB 2.0 and dual HDMI 2.1 out. Symmetry is only somewhat impaired because nan LAN ports aren't nan aforesaid specification, pinch 1 being 1GbE and nan different being 2.5GbE.

That LAN setup is simply a small overseas and suggests that having 2 USB 4.0 ports and nan USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 had an effect connected nan readiness of PCIe lanes that were needed elsewhere.

What's bully astir ECS designs is that they understand that owners will want to spell wrong to upgrade representation aliases storage, and connected nan Z7 Plus, this is simply a remarkably elemental workout if you person a Philips screwdriver handy.

Once inside, you tin straight entree some representation and M.2 slots and person nan instrumentality reassembled successful minutes aft immoderate changes. The only insignificant rumor revealed is that nan 2nd M.2 slot is only 2242 and not 2280, limiting nan types and sizes of SSD modules you tin use.

That's not ideal, but it does let immoderate scope to grow soul storage.

ECS LIVA Z7 Plus: Features

• Intel Core Ultra 5 125H
• Arc Graphics
• 28 PCIe Lanes

This processor appears successful respective SSF models from different brands, including nan Acemagic F2A and Minisforum UH125 Pro that we've looked astatine previously.

The trading points of nan first Ultra bid mobile processors are enhanced AI processing and nan summation of nan Arc GPU.

The problem pinch AI support is that comparatively fewer group are moving AI models locally astatine this time, and for those who do, nan NPU successful this strategy offers nan bottommost rung of that processing ladder.

More of a justification is nan Arc GPU, a importantly amended integrated GPU than nan Iris Xe that preceded it. The Arc still uses Xe cores, but it has them successful greater numbers than nan Iris, and arsenic this GPU still uses shared memory, it tin return advantage of nan DDR5 representation utilized by nan UH125.

It mightiness not beryllium perfect for graphics-intensive applications aliases 3D work, but nan Arc is bully capable for astir emblematic agency requirements and a notch up from nan Iris Xe for those jobs.

This processor and chipset operation shines because it has 28 PCIe 4.0 lanes, providing plentifulness of bandwidth for I/O-attached technology.

But if they're some PCIe 4.0 spec, nan M.2 slots could devour 8 lanes betwixt them, and USB 4.0 could (in theory) return different 4 lanes for each port, leaving only 12 lanes for each nan USB, LAN ports, and WiFi.

Some items person been trim back, for illustration nan 1GbE LAN port, which hints that each nan lanes are utilized successful this design. ECS didn't want to usage a PCIe move to make it look that everything could person immoderate bandwidth it wanted.

Compared to older processor designs, nan PCIe lane business connected nan UH125 is good, but nan bandwidth is still limiting nan magnitude of connectivity this strategy tin offer.

ECS LIVA Z7 Plus: Performance

Matching nan LIVA Z7 Plus reveals a capacity shortage to nan Minisforum UH125 Pro, which uses nan aforesaid processor and representation technology.

It's worthy noting that nan Minisforum instrumentality is successful a larger enclosure, allowing for much cooling and perchance higher boost voltages.

The quality betwixt these ranges from almost thing up to 25% successful immoderate cases, and portion of nan problem is multi-threading capacity and besides GPU speeds.

If this was ever commercially available, we'd walk nan clip to get nan 2 of these systems alongside each different connected nan trial chair and activity retired really nan LIVA Z7 Plus turned retired to beryllium little than stellar.

It's still astir 40% quicker than nan erstwhile Z5 Plus, but successful nan discourse of Intel Ultra-powered NUCs, it's not astatine nan apical of nan pile.

ECS LIVA Z7 Plus: Verdict

What an overseas script wherever a reputable institution for illustration ECS designs and develops a caller merchandise line, produces machines for reappraisal and past drives distant from it earlier launch.

Invariably, these stories ne'er boil down to a azygous issue, but nan capacity we knowledgeable mightiness hint that thing is incorrect pinch this creation that can't beryllium addressed pinch a firmware upgrade aliases a driver.

The strategy seemed stable, and instrumentality sound wasn't an issue, truthful nan LIVA Z7 Plus machines that ECS manufactured worked good capable to benchmark.

It will beryllium absorbing to spot if this exemplary makes a meteoric return astatine immoderate constituent pinch capacity issues resolved, but we wouldn't return bets connected that.

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