The ground state properties and equation of state of the non-oxide perovskite-type superconductor MgCNi,3 are investigated by first-principles calculations based on the plane-wave basis set with the local density approximation (LDA) as well as the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) for exchange and correlation, which agree well with both theoretical calculations and experiments. Some thermodynamic properties including the heat capacity, the thermal expansion coefficient and the Gruneisen parameter for perovskite structure MgCNi,3 are obtained.