Microsoft Surface

[picagen]

thanks guys.

very informative!

I have a WD Black HDD on my desktop which I intend to use it as an external harddrive. If I install most of the programs on it, would it be fast enough? Say it's a SATA II HDD.

Is the loading time greatly affected, if it's installed on a SD card?

I'm deciding between 128 GB and 64 GB version, but leaning towards the 64 GB, as I think there's some heat issue with the i5 and i7 version, right?

Correct me if I am wrong.

Thanks.




i'm planning to dismantle my WD Black HDD and use it as a desktop

First off, you need to know your needs first.. the amount of programs you need to install, the type of programs and amount of memories required.. You choose that first, cause if you need 8GB of memories, you need to choose the i5/8GB/256GB.


If 4GB RAM is ok for you, how much space does your programs takes? You don't install it outside the SP3 to your external HDD.. programs should stay with your SP3. So if your programs are bigger than 30GB, please don't get the i3/4GB/64GB version... Just go for the i5/4GB/128GB version instead..


i5 may get hot, but there are ways to work around it. (like you can manually throttle it down)


but if you get the i3 and you ran out of space to install your programs, pushing it to microSD is slower, but you still face data space constrain.


Your HDD is great as a home dock desktop mode for the sp3.. but not to install programs in it.. to hold your movies, your huge collections of art and many large stuffs...




Looking at the heat issue, its not too much of a problem if you don't mind slowing it down.. i5 can be cool by not letting it clock up. The throttling issue you hear is the system forcing the i5 to slow down as its getting too hot, so it only gets hot because its running too fast too hot for the system cooling system to handle.. But clocking down a i5 down looses both heat and its speed advantages over the i3.. in fact it almost brings it on par.


So the considering factor isn't i3 or i5 its memories and SSD space..


64GB model fits my needs of what programs I want to run in the SP3 (as a mobile machine) I am not going to pay another $250 just for another 64GB of SSD space. All SP3 has the same screen, pen, battery, kickstand.


But if you need more space, or more memory, 64GB model is not your choice, please don't think of installing your programs in a external HDD or microSD.. those are for your datas...


You know thy self better

 

[picagen]

Question to those people with i3 model, when surfing internet with many tabs scrolling any lag? Or when typing?

I am now sitting in a café, running at 0.57GHz speed(forced)

(battery mode, - so far about 1.5hrs used 12%)


with 8 tabs open in my desktop IE, an 200kb excel spreadsheet opened , VLC player with a 720P video (currently paused) and a 100MB PDF document opened -(evince PDF reader)


No lag in scrolling and typing webpages and scrolling the pdf..




The only lag I get is adobe acrobat and when loading the webpages, due to slower internet access (via Bluetooth to my 3G HP)

 

[savage]

Today had a surprise when I arrived home..Microsoft send me a free sleeve for surface

so good ah? Will I get one too? LOL~ how come you get leh?

 

[noobzpro]

anyways anybody needs the grab and go pack? i do not need it and have the option to get it

 

[Niaoson]

How's the battery life for you guys?

On default screen brightness (out of the box, no changes made) the battery seems to be dropping really fast for me and I don't foresee it lasting 9 hours. Tuned the brightness down and it seems to be better but still don't think it can last 9 hours. And I'm not even running anything intensive, just reading PDFs and surfing the net.

I can probably reach 9 hours if I switch off WiFi but isn't it supposed to 9 hours of continuous surfing?

 

[RequiemDK]

How's the battery life for you guys?

On default screen brightness (out of the box, no changes made) the battery seems to be dropping really fast for me and I don't foresee it lasting 9 hours. Tuned the brightness down and it seems to be better but still don't think it can last 9 hours. And I'm not even running anything intensive, just reading PDFs and surfing the net.

I can probably reach 9 hours if I switch off WiFi but isn't it supposed to 9 hours of continuous surfing?

It does depend on what kind of website you surf to and what browser you use too. The most notorious battery sucking browser is Chrome. Also, make sure that the SP3 isn't doing some massive system update in the background too.

I do get roughly 8 to 9 hours of use in the sense that I start work at about 8am and by about 530pm, it's at around 7-10% left. It's not constantly in use since I close the cover when moving from place to place, but I'd say it's turned on 90% of the time. My own unscientific test last weekend was using metro IE and brightness at about 30% and I did get about 9 hours of surfing, vegging out at home.

On the other hand, I just installed a bunch of games. Let's see how that affects the battery life tomorrow. Heh.

 

[Niaoson]

It does depend on what kind of website you surf to and what browser you use too. The most notorious battery sucking browser is Chrome. Also, make sure that the SP3 isn't doing some massive system update in the background too.

I do get roughly 8 to 9 hours of use in the sense that I start work at about 8am and by about 530pm, it's at around 7-10% left. It's not constantly in use since I close the cover when moving from place to place, but I'd say it's turned on 90% of the time. My own unscientific test last weekend was using metro IE and brightness at about 30% and I did get about 9 hours of surfing, vegging out at home.

On the other hand, I just installed a bunch of games. Let's see how that affects the battery life tomorrow. Heh.

Ya I sorta realised that Chrome was sucking battery like there's no tomorrow so I switched to Firefox but it doesn't seem to be helping I guess I could always lower the brightness again but pretty sure Microsoft wasn't intending for a totally dark screen when they quoted 9 hours

Will continue to monitor!

 

[Livewings]

Ya I sorta realised that Chrome was sucking battery like there's no tomorrow so I switched to Firefox but it doesn't seem to be helping I guess I could always lower the brightness again but pretty sure Microsoft wasn't intending for a totally dark screen when they quoted 9 hours

Will continue to monitor!

Use IE. IE is basically the best browser for battery life. Firefox and Chrome are battery sucking.
I managed to last 8-9 hours using exclusively IE.

 

[Ray1976]

Yes...I also realize that Chrome Browser really use up battery very fast

 

[purpleberry]

Yes, Chrome is a huge battery eater. If you open task manager concurrently, you can see that Chrome easily uses 100% of your CPU power to load web pages. Their priority is speed. Not to mention it consumes lots of memory. IE uses 50-60% and seldom goes beyond 70% unless for super loaded Java, flash sites.

Perhaps limiting CPU processing power to 50% when on battery mode might do the trick to get more juice. Has anyone tried this?

 

[~大.芒.果~]

Yes...I also realize that Chrome Browser really use up battery very fast

Google finally agrees to fix Chrome bug that drains Windows laptop batteries

They claim to have fixed it in Chrome 37...but I doubt it

I use IE on my Surface and the battery can last me a long time

 

[minute_me]

Huh you ordered another without even confirming the return? I thought you were ok with your set anyway..

Hi, how did you initiate the return? thru live chat or did you call a number ? I initiated a return few days ago thru live chat, still no sound no picture from them. kept telling me to wait.

 

[josephkjc]

Bought the MS complete for $229...u have to give them a call and chit chat for 20mins.

what do you need to tell them that require 20mins

 

[RequiemDK]

Yes, Chrome is a huge battery eater. If you open task manager concurrently, you can see that Chrome easily uses 100% of your CPU power to load web pages. Their priority is speed. Not to mention it consumes lots of memory. IE uses 50-60% and seldom goes beyond 70% unless for super loaded Java, flash sites.

Perhaps limiting CPU processing power to 50% when on battery mode might do the trick to get more juice. Has anyone tried this?

I did that with my SP1 before, but can't be bothered with it on the SP3. Lol. I remember it gave me an extra 15-30 mins of battery life at most with the SP1. But it depends on your workload too. If what you do never pushes the processor to go into turbo mode, then that setting won't do much for you.


Just learnt something today, although I don't know the details yet. The WiFi network and router that you're connected to also plays a part. Some busy networks ping your device constantly and nuke your battery because your device has to keep responding. Damn irritating.

 

[quailmaster]

what do you need to tell them that require 20mins

Need to verify a lot of info.. Then they need to key in and hold.. It takes around that time.. Dun understand why they cant just let us do it online

 

[Niaoson]

How does the soft keyboard work for you guys? Does it automatically appear when you select fields which allow input and then automatically hide itself when you tap on a blank spot? My keyboard needs to be manually opened and closed even in IE which isn't very intuitive IMO..

 

[Ray1976]

A much clearer explanation on what's causing the battery drain for Chrome browser...Microsoft even shared the "secret" to better battery management to other third party browsers...Google cannot say they dun know what is causing the problem now.

Microsoft News | Google Is Working To Fix The Chrome Browser Bug That Drains Your Windows Laptop Battery

 

[AstoxicAsCanBe]

what do you need to tell them that require 20mins

They verify your info, then do some stuff on their computer which takes super long

 

[cmwong123]

How does the soft keyboard work for you guys? Does it automatically appear when you select fields which allow input and then automatically hide itself when you tap on a blank spot? My keyboard needs to be manually opened and closed even in IE which isn't very intuitive IMO..

Not for desktop app, example desktop IE , U need to manual open soft keyboard.
For metro app, it will open automatically , example metro IE.

 

[darkgod123]

hi guys whats the cheapest way to buy a pro3 with keyboard ? so far i only know of the microsoft website student price i5 at 1.5k+ keyboard .164 + office 0.098 = 1.8k approx !