iFixit Teardown

[Bandito]

As far as no plastics on the Surface machines goes, look at the strip across the top of your SP3 that includes the power button. I'm pretty sure that it is plastic as they would need something like that to place the wireless antennas next to.

 

[jedge]

NFC will not work through a metal chassis and one of the design ethos from the Surface Team is no plastic on the device (with the exception of the LTE version of the Surface 2).

The top of the SP3 is made of plastic. In the video i linked above he calls it the "antenna window" at 2:56.

 

[Cothek]

No one really answered the op on this. I know it's a bit old but this is important to me as well.

 

[GreyFox7]

No one an answered the op on this. I know it's a bit old but this is important to me as well.

I seem to recall one of the other reviews mentioning pci-e on the power port was a proprietary implementation so if your thinking of leveraging the power port its not std pci-e.

 

[jnjroach]

All we know for you is that the Power Port allows for Display Port and USB 3.0 Pass through as both the mini-DP is available on the device same goes for the USB Port.

 

[bluegrass]

I haven't done a teardown on mine yet so I can' comment on what I could upgrade and what I couldn't. That's why I'm picking up my SP3 i7 512 tomorrow at the Microsoft store, so hopefully I won't need an upgrade for awhile.

 

[RottenMutt]

after reviewing the features of the dock it sounds like it definitely passes pci-e....

 

[Kif]

What port did the original docking station leverage?

 

[GreyFox7]

What port did the original docking station leverage?

connections were to display port, USB port, and of course power. The power port in previous models was just power, nothing else.

If you have one of those nifty magnifying lights you can see that the power port on the SP3 is bristling with contacts while the cable just has three top and bottom at each end of the fin.

 

[Moonsurface]

after reviewing the features of the dock it sounds like it definitely passes pci-e....

So, what does that mean? What sort of devices coudl you attach that are PCI-e? I know you get the slots in the computer for things like graphics cards etc, but I'm not sure what applications are available for a port like the power port?

 

[Kif]

So, what does that mean? What sort of devices coudl you attach that are PCI-e? I know you get the slots in the computer for things like graphics cards etc, but I'm not sure what applications are available for a port like the power port?

It means that the Microsoft docking station is a true docking station versus a glorified port replicator. The power port most likely has a much higher throughput that a USB 3 port. So the performance of devices plugged into the docking station should be quite good. Of course none of this can be confirmed until they start shipping.

The docking station was one of the deciding factors for me to buy a Surface. I use my SP3 as my work machine and my home machine.

 

[GreyFox7]

It means that the Microsoft docking station is a true docking station versus a glorified port replicator. The power port most likely has a much higher throughput that a USB 3 port. So the performance of devices pulled into the docking station should be quite good. Of course none of this can be confirmed until they start shipping.

The docking station was one of the deciding factors for me to buy a Surface. I use my SP3 as my work machine and my home machine.

Just curious, one dock or two?