Pros: Fanless. Low power draw. Compatible with OPENELEC (5.08 or later) + Ubuntu. Can playback 10bit 1080p movies perfectly (See other thoughts).

Cons: WIFI /Bluetooth chip won't work under linux (but can be replaced). Somewhat hard to assemble (mostly due to the small antenna which are very hard to attach properly). Terrible BIOS; can't disable secure boot. Only boots UEFI compatible media like Windows 8 or Ubuntu media. USB devices that need additional power from port won't work.

Overall Review: A little history: I bought this a long time ago trying to turn it into a media streamer box for my wife. Unfortunately, the onerous BIOS and useless WIFI chip led me to abandon those plans since only Windows 8 would work - until now! Using Rufus under Windows 7, I formatted my USB drive as UEFI/GPT using the latest release image; booted and installed OPENELEC in under 10 minutes. Tweaked some settings and tested it out by loading up various video files and it played them all back flawlessly! Even the 10bit 1080p stuff! It gets somewhat hot if you run it for a long time, but I swear the performance is comparable (if not better than) to my hacked Chromebox with OPENELEC (and DEAD SILENT). If you can get past the limitations, this is a great KODI device and far better than any cheap ARM box.

Pros: Ubuntu support for wireless and BT now available on LIVA X using this wireless combo card, which can be subsituted for the card supplied with this model. AzureWave AW-NB087H Ralink RT3290 Chipset IEEE 802.11 b/g/n 150Mbps with Bluetooth 3.0HS Half Size MINI PCIe Wi-Fi Card direct replacement for supplied card with older model

Cons: this was the card that should have been supplied in the first place

Overall Review: ECS should supply this card .... from now on...

Pros: TINY, FAST, and SILENT

Cons: ONLY works with Windows 8 64 bit. You can't install Windows 7 on it, nor can you install Windows 8 32 bit. It simply won't install. The setup will either hang at the splashscreen or not boot at all with anything other than Windows 8 64bit Connecting the antenna cables for the wireless card is a bit tedious and you have to do it carefully. NOTE: this machine comes in PIECES. 2 parts for the plastic case bottom/top, the actual motherboard with everything on it, the small wireless card, and 2 antenna wires for the wireless. You have to assemble it, which took me only about 5 minutes but some people might feel nervous doing it. It's NOT difficult, but still some people are just scared of assembling anything.

Overall Review: If I could install Windows 7 on it, I'd have given it 5 stars. It's not that the hardware can't run Windows 7, it's just that the UEFI BIOS doesn't have the option to enable compatibility mode for Windows 7. Still, my "pros" section covers it with a short and sweet description of this great machine: tiny, fast, and SILENT. Also, it requires almost no electricity to run, which makes it an excellent choice for a media center PC, since you don't even have to turn it off. It runs off of a standard USB cell phone charger!

Pros: low power use, low noise. i leave it on all the time. Windows 8.1 installed flawlessly. Website drivers completed the install. i used rufus to create a bootable usb drive for windows install. Using a Logitech mouse/keyboard w/unifying dongle. Sans Digital USB3.0 ext HD for media storage. Wifi and Bluetooth work perfectly.

Cons: USB 2.0 port stopped working when the external HD was plugged in even though its a powered ext HD. Remedied the problem with a powered USB hub for the Keyboard/mouse. Wireless card was difficult to connect antenna wires to, so be careful.

Overall Review: Do plenty of research on possible problems that can arise. Learn from others mistakes and you install will go much smoother, dont assume anything. Also recommend installing a temperature monitoring software to verify you have properly heat synced Cpu. (~40c idle, 50-60+ full use).

Pros: Great media center PC, surfs and streams great from Netflix, Hulu, etc. I use a wireless Keyboard with a built-in touch pad. 1080p output upscales beautifully on my Sony 65" 4k HDTV. I am running Win 8.1 Pro. This little beauty replaces a Lenovo Mini Tower with an i5 Processor and a 256 Gb SSD and does the job as well. I also stream DVD images over my LAN from my video server without a hiccup.

Cons: You must have USB Hub to make OS installation easier.

Pros: System arrived promptly and assembly was quick and easy. Care must be taken connecting the antennas to the Bluetooth/Wireless card. Installed Ubuntu 14.04 desktop without any problems. I do not care about the Wireless/Bluetooth issue as I will hard wire mine to the router.

Cons: Documentation on installing Ubuntu lacking. I understand that ESC does not support Ubuntu but a little more information would be great. Go to the web to get the best info. I downloaded 14.04 desktop from Ubuntu and used Universal USB Installer to create a USB install device, plugged it in and it installed without problems. Quick and easy.

Overall Review: So far I love mine!!

Pros: small. will handle most applications that are not processor intensive very well. running media center, media browser theater, netflix, network streams of movie files just as well as the big full pc it replaced. comes with dual band wifi and bluetooth.

Cons: only 2 usb. 32gb version is a little tight on space after win8.1 install. light, so hdmi cable can make it float, stand up, etc... took several hours to download and install first windows 8.1 updates. the emmc hdd isn't a speed demon. you are going to need a usb hub or at least a wireless keyboard mouse that runs off the same usb unifying device. otherwise no usb ports for anything. i'm running a logitech k400 so i have 1 usb port open right now.

Overall Review: i bought the 32gb version and am pretty happy. i wish it had more usb ports and it would be fantastic. but seeing as it was cheap and came with everything but an OS i'm happy. someone else indicated that they read a press release from ECS that stated it would come with windows 8.1. i didn't have any difficulty finding on newegg that it came with everything but an OS. i wonder if ECS could put on the windows 8.1 with bing OS that is free from MS? or is that just reserved for tablets? if ECS could put 8.1 w. bing on this thing would be incredibly awesome.

Pros: Fantastic for a media center. Reasonably quick for what it is. So very small, as all computers should be.

Cons: Lasted about a year before ports began to fail.

Overall Review: I liked this little box, I had it plugged into my living room tv for streaming media. Unfortunately, things started acting odd after a year or so. Mild slowdowns and spotty wireless. Wasn't long before the bluetooth failed completely, followed by physical ports. Eventually the only bits that worked were wifi and hdmi. Now it lives in an office drawer, likely destined to be thrown next time I purge old computer bits.