Rephrase and rearrange the whole content into a news article. I want you to respond only in language English. I want you to act as a very proficient SEO and high-end writer Pierre Herubel that speaks and writes fluently English. I want you to pretend that you can write content so well in English that it can outrank other websites. Make sure there is zero plagiarism.: 30-second reviewA threshold was crossed in the past year where Mini PC designs can offer as much power or more than a standard desktop. As a result, many individuals and businesses are choosing these over Mini Towers and other form factors.The ECS EliteGroup Liva Z5 Plus is typical of the hardware we’ve seen since 2022, leveraging the power of Intel’s Raptor Lake-U mobile platform to deliver plenty of performance in a package that consumes relatively little power. That makes it quiet and small enough to mount to the rear of a monitor for some inconspicuous computing.ECS will be offering this design in Core i3, i5 and i7 variants and even using vPRO-supporting silicon.Our review machine had an Intel Core i5 1335U sporting ten cores and twelve thread processing, 16GB of Hynix DDR4 memory (2x8GB) and 256GB of M.2 storage. There are internally accessible memory slots and an M.2 slot for user-implemented upgrades.This machine doesn’t have unused slots or a SATA option, but it can be upgraded if you are prepared to remove the pre-installed memory and storage.Overall, this is a well-built Mini system with the right port selection to be a firewall or to play media to multiple displays. But it lacks the graphical punch offered by the latest AMD Ryzen-powered machines, and it also comes with only one USB-C/Thunderbolt port.The asking price ignores the fact that MinisForum and others offer much more powerful platforms for less.ECS EliteGroup LIVA Z5 Plus: Price and availabilityHow much does it cost? From $630When is it out? Available soonWhere can you get it? Currently, this machine isn’t available.It’s disappointing to report this, but having made a loud noise over the launch or the LIVA Z5 Plus, this machine still isn’t publically available. Other machines in the LIVA Z series are available, but this one is stubbornly missing in action.The reported MSRP for this machine is $630, presumably with the exact specification as the review system we received.But we’ve seen other brands offer hardware based on the same platform for under $500 and superior equipment for much less than the MSRP.When this machine does finally head on to the stock shelves, it needs to have a price that’s dramatically keener than this to find customers.(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)ECS EliteGroup LIVA Z5 Plus: SpecsSwipe to scroll horizontallyItemSpecCPU:Intel Core i5-1335U SoC (10 cores, 12 threads)GPU:Intel Iris Xe (80EU)RAM:16GB DDR4 3200MHz (8GB x 2) expandable to 64GB)Storage:256GB M.2 2280 PCIe Gen 4 (one slot only)Expansion:AFTERPorts:3x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, 1x USB 4.0 Gen 2×2 Type-C, 1x USB 2.0 (internal header), 2x HDMI 2.0b, 1x Displayport 1.4, 1x universal audio jackNetworking:2x 2.5GbE LAN, WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.2OS:Windows 11 Pro (pre-installed)Base Power:15WPSU:19V 4.47A 90WDimensions:148 x 120 x 38.35 (mm)ECS EliteGroup LIVA Z5 Plus: DesignMostly metal Mini PCAll USB ports on frontEasy internal accessDepending on where they will be used, the LIVA Z5 Plus has the distinct advantage of having a mostly metal case. It’s not thick metal milled from a solid block, but the chassis sides and bottom are all metal, and only the top is plastic.Air is drawn in through the sides and then, after circulating over the motherboard, is ejected from a slot that goes across the rear above the I/O section.The front face has three USB 3.2 Gen 2×1 ports alongside another USB-C port that ECS reports as being USB 4.0 2×2. In addition to the power button, the front also has a 3.5mm universal audio jack that most people will use for headphones.Unusually, the rear has no USB ports at all. Instead, the space is divided between three video ports (two HDMI and one DisplayPort) and dual 2.5GbE LAN ports. The specs of these video ports are HDMI 2.0b and DP1.4, and in theory, it is possible to get another display from the USB-C port using Alt DP mode.However, the Iris Xe GPU in this machine only supports three displays, so USB-C would be an alternative to one of the existing display outputs.The choice of all Gen 1 USB-A ports isn’t ideal since it limits the performance of any external SSD to around 500MB/s.According to the definition, USB 4.0 Gen 2×2 ports support 20 Gbit/s transfers and offer compatibility with Thunderbolt 3 and prior USB standards (USB 3.2 and USB 2.0).There is one more USB port hidden inside, a USB 2.0 header. But the purpose of this and how you might use it seem cloaked in mystery.On the subject of the internals, getting inside the Z5 Plus is very easy and unscrewing the capture bolts on the feet releases the floor of the case. With that cover removed, access to the memory and M.2 slots is available, enabling easy upgrades.(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)The internal layout hints that at some point in the development of the Z5, an additional M.2 slot was intended, as the board has open space between the current M.2 2280 and the memory slots. Technically, it is possible to put another M.2 drive inside if you dispense with the 2230 module used for WiFi and Bluetooth and replace it with an NVMe drive of that spec.Other curiosities are what look like ribbon cable headers for a SATA drive, but there isn’t room inside for one, and the cables to connect it aren’t provided.With only one full-sized NVMe slot, a USB carrier will be needed to clone the existing operating system to a fresh drive should you decide that 256GB of storage is too snug for a running Windows 11 Pro system.Overall, the design of the LIVA Z5 Plus is neither a triumph nor a disaster, but somewhere in the middle that, for many people, will be workable.(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)ECS EliteGroup LIVA Z5 Plus: FeaturesIntel Core i5 1335UIris Xe and DDR420 PCIe LanesThe chosen processor, an Intel Core i5 1335U, is an odd chip where the efficiency cores outnumber the performance cores in a 10-to-2 ratio. And, with only two cores supporting hyperthreading, that caps the maximum thread handling at twelve.On paper, the performance cores look great, as they can turbo boost to 4.6GHz and use the 12MB of Smart Cache.However, the real limitation here isn’t these values. It’s that the silicon is configured with a maximum draw of just 15W.That has the advantage that with minimum cooling, this machine won’t get even warm to the touch at full speed. But this cap on power means it can’t exploit that turbo mode or even all the efficiency cores with face-planting into the power budget.Intel designed this chip with a potential extended budget of 55W, but ECS didn’t use that option. They decided to stick to the default power budget, designed for a laptop, in a machine with mains power, confusingly.That choice held this system back, and so did the 80EU version of the Iris Xe that Intel gave its i5 chips in this series, not the 96 execution units that the Core i7 chips get.That’s not a huge deal, but what undermines the GPU more is the use of DDR4 memory when the processor can address DDR5. While DDR4 is still cheaper than DDR5 for the maker to populate the machine, it also doesn’t deliver the same bandwidth as DDR5. This impacts overall performance, most noticeably in bandwidth-intensive multi-threaded tests. But it also reduces GPU performance, as the integrated graphics of the Iris Xe use shared memory with the main system.(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)When you combine the power limits, GPU option and memory type, these all negatively impact the performance potential of the Z5 Plus.One place that this chip excels is PCIe lanes, with 20 available. There are not as many as we’ve seen on Core i9 and AMD Ryzen 7 platforms, but plenty compared to the N100 and its measly 9. This CPU has PCIe 4.0, and the support chips are PCIe 3.0. Our only concern is that with so many PCIe lanes available, how did all the USB 3.2 Type-A ports end up as Gen 1 spec, and why are there so few?While some are used for the Dual 2.5GbE LAN ports, the PCIe 4.0 M.2…
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