Which Surface Pro 3 should I go for the 128gb, 4gb RAM or 256gb,8gb RAM?

[WPCentral Question]

Surface Pro 3: 128gb, 4gb RAM or 256gb,8gb RAM

Hey guys! So I'm a college student looking to replace my old laptop with a brand new SP3. Problem is, I don't know which type to go for. My typical laptop use is surfing the internet, social media, listening/downloading music, streaming movies from Netflix, playing PC games like The Sims 3, and the typical student workload with Word and Powerpoint. I can tend to be a file (pictures, music, old essays, videos) hoarder too which is why I'm worried about space. And I don't want my games to lag, thus RAM difference is something to look at. The 128gb is definitely in my price range but I can save up that extra for the 256gb. But if I can get the needed performance with the 128gb/4gbRam then I'll just purchase that one.
Just need a second opinion, thanks!

 

[TechFreak1]

Re: Surface Pro 3: 128gb, 4gb RAM or 256gb,8gb RAM

You can expand your storage using a external hard drive or using a mSD card slot and remember you will not be getting the full 128 or 256. Also you need to factor in the keyboard into the cost plus any additional warranties you want take out.

So if you are not going to be do anything that is ram intensive during college (presuming you are not looking at the i5 model with 8gb ram) & need to keep with-in budget then your better off with the cheaper model + plus a cheap external hdd (you can get a 2tb 2.5 portable hdd for about $100 off amazon.com) or fork a bit more for the i5 model if you really want the extra storage and don't want the hassle of carrying around a portable hard drive. Your paying for the convenience here really and the extra ram will help somewhat but won't not much difference for basic tasks.

However if you have the money to spare and want to future proof yourself I would suggest getting the i7 256 model as the difference is $225 dollars between the i5 variant. For that difference you get 8gb ram, a better igp & cpu - the downside I can see you may take hit on the battery life.