ECS Leading Compact PC Charge with Mini-STX and Intel Apollo Lake Showcased at Computex

The Intel mini STX form factor made its first public appearance at CES earlier in 2016 at ECS’ suite, showcasing a compact motherboard with a swappable LGA CPU socket on a 5×5-inch layout. It is the result of the collaborative effort between the ECS and Intel, making its way into many mini-PCs beginning in Q3 2016. ECS’ own latest Liva Pro mini-PC is utilizing the H110S-2P motherboard supporting the latest 6th generation Intel processors for LGA 1151 socket with two DDR4 SO-DIMM slots supporting up to DDR4 2400, 1x SATA 6G port, 1x M.2 (2280) port, 1x M.2 (2230) port, four USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 ports.

This STX motherboard will also find home in other non-ECS branded mini-PCs and for those who are opting for a DIY flavor, custom cases are available from Silverstone and Hibertek in various colors and designs, available by the end of June 2016.

While at Computex, ECS also displayed their LIVA-Z Mini-PC sporting new Intel Apollo Lake parts. Having close ties with Intel, ECS also seems to have exclusive on these as well for the moment, being the first to have a working kit on display. The LIVA-Z Mini-PC supports a pair of DDR3L SO-DIMM memory with 32GB/64GB eMMC flash with 1x m.2 2280 for additional storage. Video output on the compact Apollo lake solution include a Mini-DP and HDMI while network connectivity includes 802.11AC WiFI with dual Gigabit Ethernet. The 14nm Intel Apollo Lake was just announced in April 2016 but is expected to be available beginning Summer 2016, bringing full hardware VP9 and HEVC support that was only a hybrid implementation on the Braswell platform released last year.