SP3 - i7

[bluegrass]

It pained me to take my i5 256gig SP3 back to the Microsoft store last night. Since these systems are not upgradeable I decided to bite the bullet (cost) and order an SP3 - i7 512 gig. They gave me no hassle when I told them that I was afraid the I would need more power. I didn't even have a receipt but I had all the original packaging. I never throw packaging away on more costly technical stuff I buy. Supposedly they will be arriving in the store on August 1st, so I only have a couple weeks to wait. I had my hands on an SP3 since the first day they were available in the MS store. I have come to really appreciate the SP3 capabilities as a serviceable work computer plus they are fun to use.

I even convinced my boss, who is the IT manager, to purchase a couple SP3's for employees that would have otherwise been given a laptop & an iPad; they sometimes travel. These Surfaces will be their sole computer. I'm setting them up with a wireless USB keyboard and mouse plus a 23" screen. When the SP3 docking station gets in, I will set one of them up with twin external monitors. I that Surface computers have now become part of my job. I dreamed about it but I didn't think it would come true so soon. So far so good. I added them to our domain & installed all the apps that they use and without any hitches. Now I'll be where the rubber meets the road and actually get to see what my clients come up with in the way of problems with their Surface computers.

 

[ctitanic]

Keep us updated with your experience.

 

[JesseDiaz]

It pained me to take my i5 256gig SP3 back to the Microsoft store last night. Since these systems are not upgradeable I decided to bite the bullet (cost) and order an SP3 - i7 512 gig. They gave me no hassle when I told them that I was afraid the I would need more power. I didn't even have a receipt but I had all the original packaging. I never throw packaging away on more costly technical stuff I buy. Supposedly they will be arriving in the store on August 1st, so I only have a couple weeks to wait. I had my hands on an SP3 since the first day they were available in the MS store. I have come to really appreciate the SP3 capabilities as a serviceable work computer plus they are fun to use.

I even convinced my boss, who is the IT manager, to purchase a couple SP3's for employees that would have otherwise been given a laptop & an iPad; they sometimes travel. These Surfaces will be their sole computer. I'm setting them up with a wireless USB keyboard and mouse plus a 23" screen. When the SP3 docking station gets in, I will set one of them up with twin external monitors. I that Surface computers have now become part of my job. I dreamed about it but I didn't think it would come true so soon. So far so good. I added them to our domain & installed all the apps that they use and without any hitches. Now I'll be where the rubber meets the road and actually get to see what my clients come up with in the way of problems with their Surface computers.

Nice...let us know if it was worth it....
Ive been toying with the same idea...I have 4 days to do so

 

[fonzman78]

Nice...let us know if it was worth it....
Ive been toying with the same idea...I have 4 days to do so

Yep, I'm in the same boat. I have the i5-256GB but want to know if the i7 will make any significant improvement. I have a 45 day return period with BestBuy so that gives me just about 4 days to play/read up reports from actual users before deciding on returning the i5 for the i7.

I'm don't think I really need the i7 but devil geek on my left shoulder is telling me to just buy it while the angel geek on my right shoulder is telling me to be content.

So, knowing that I don't really need it, do I go devil or angel geek? After spending $1450, what's another $250, right?

 

[Seneleron]

I'm waiting for the performance comparisons. It means shelling out an extra 2 grand, but my wife has been eyeballing my SP3 since I got it. She actually refuses to touch it because she's afraid she won't be able to go back to her SP2.

 

[bluegrass]

I know it's a tough decision to make. I pondered over it for the pas couple of weeks until I read an article from a technician that said like this:

"If You Ask Me...
If I were buying one, I would only consider the i7 with 512 GB of storage for $1,949 because you will really need the storage and you can never have too much processing power. While $2,250 (including keyboard and tax) is really expensive, it is about as future-proof as you can make this purchase. Literally every other model will be obsolete the moment you get it home. 256 GB simply is not enough local storage for anyone. BTW: I would not purchase a MacBook Air with anything less than an i7 processor and 512 GB storage either. There's no point."

I think I'm a little more lenient with my spending sometimes than I should be, but having been in the business for 45 years tells me you can't have too fast or too powerful of a computer. Unless Microsoft really outdoes their self with SP4, I think the SP3 - i7 will be a wise investment for me, that will give me a hedge on technology for a couple of years.

My eyes and don't perform like they did twenty years ago so the larger screen of the SP3 was definitely a good way to go for me. I say, if you can possibly afford to, go for the i7 and don't look back. I truly believe an SP3 type of computer is going to play a very big role in computing for the foreseeable future and Microsoft had the vision to produce it and I think they will continue to be the leader in this new class of computing technology.

 

[hughlle]

I know it's a tough decision to make. I pondered over it for the pas couple of weeks until I read an article from a technician that said like this:

"If You Ask Me...
If I were buying one, I would only consider the i7 with 512 GB of storage for $1,949 because you will really need the storage and you can never have too much processing power. While $2,250 (including keyboard and tax) is really expensive, it is about as future-proof as you can make this purchase. Literally every other model will be obsolete the moment you get it home. 256 GB simply is not enough local storage for anyone. BTW: I would not purchase a MacBook Air with anything less than an i7 processor and 512 GB storage either. There's no point."

I think I'm a little more lenient with my spending sometimes than I should be, but having been in the business for 45 years tells me you can't have too fast or too powerful of a computer. Unless Microsoft really outdoes their self with SP4, I think the SP3 - i7 will be a wise investment for me, that will give me a hedge on technology for a couple of years.

My eyes and don't perform like they did twenty years ago so the larger screen of the SP3 was definitely a good way to go for me. I say, if you can possibly afford to, go for the i7 and don't look back. I truly believe an SP3 type of computer is going to play a very big role in computing for the foreseeable future and Microsoft had the vision to produce it and I think they will continue to be the leader in this new class of computing technology.

I read that just the other day, and well, I hardly consider it a logical statement. If i had all the money in the world, sure, i'd buy the most i could possibly get. It doesn't matter if the i5 model is obsolete, it clearly offers a VERY good experience, and it is silly to just ignore it sying buy the absurdly expensive i7/512gb as it's more future proof. To back this up, other than this review, almost everything i've come across has all come to the agreement that i5/256gb is the sweet spot for performance and longevity.

 

[Lemuel]

I would advise on the opposite mainly because of three reasons: cost of devices are trending down, the hybrid form factor is still in its infancy and the tech is still catching up to the "devices" era. Surely the SP that will come out in 2 years will be faster, lighter, thinner, have a larger storage capacity and longer battery life. From a techie perspective it would be best to get what is sufficient now and to not over purchase. Then use the unspent money to get a new device down the line. Because lets be honest, we all are going to have the itch to upgrade each time a new SP is announced and it will be easier to justify doing so if we spent 1k instead of 2k on the previous SP.

Then again if money is not an issue. Get the best now and the best later.

 

[bluegrass]

You will say the same thing and be in the same boat 1, 2, 3, & 4 years from now. In 2016, you'll be saying in two more years the technology costs will come down and it will be better if you go with just enough to cover you now and wait for two years when the technology will be better and cheaper. Of course it will. I paid well over $1000 for my first home computer in 1978 and it was cassette based, with 16kb of storage. Remember the revolutionary game Pong came out about 1970.

 

[be77solo]

Well, many of us hoped, but unfortunately early reports from Japan (they got the i7 earlier than the US) confirm the i7 isn't an improvement:

"one more number of i7, 15% slower than sp2 when converting video:

176: [Fn] + [Mr.名無shi]: 2014 / 07 / 18 (Friday) 10:41:55.88 ID:3 jKVzDjC video enco comparison (TMPGEnc Video Mastering Works 5)

Convert mp4 to AVI 8:02

Of course the same Inco set

Surface Pro 2 128 GB core i5 time: 20:25

Surface Pro 3 512GB core i7 time: 23:20


Impressions

What's this? "

SOURCE: http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/microsoft/62474-surface-pro-3-discussion-thread-266.html

 

[megatronium]

You guys are ridiculous. In the same thread quoted from this link, it shows the SP3 i7 scoring slightly better in another test and the test you used in your quote isn't optimized for multi core. Never mind the undervolting method to reduce throttling, or the fact that Microsoft would be stupid as rocks to release an "upgrade" with no measurable performance increase, or that it will likely be further refined with firmware improvements, etc. but I get it. The SP3 i5 and SP2 i5 are better than the SP3 i7 and us i7 buyers are wasting our money. Thanks!

 

[wynand32]

Personally, I challenge the proposition that the Core i5 is "obsolete." Yes, the Core i7 should perform better, particularly for multithreaded apps that will take advantage of it. Video editing comes to mind. If you use your SP3 for that kind of thing, then sure, the investment in the i7 is well worth it. If you don't, however, an i5 should be plenty.

Same thing with 512GB--if you've filled up 256GB on another machine, then 512GB makes sense. For myself, I've not yet used up the 256GB on the 2-year-old MacBook Air that the SP3 is replacing, and that's primarily running Windows 8.1 using Boot Camp and Parallels. So, the argument that "256GB won't be enough space" doesn't hold true for me.

Really, I find these sorts of arguments a little silly. There are many different use cases for a machine like the SP3, and so which configuration is best will vary for each buyer. I think there's a minimum that makes sense, for example I think 64GB isn't sufficient given how much space Windows 8.1 takes up. And so, I would never buy the i3/64GB version.

But beyond that, I think Microsoft offers different configurations for a reason, and for me the extra $750 for the i7/512Gb version simply wouldn't be worth it vs. the i5/256GB version. And the extra $200 for the i7 vs. the i5 also isn't worth it to me, considering as well that with greater processing power also comes potentially less battery life, and the latter is very important to me.