Surface Book and SSD performance not sure what to do

[jakebake]

So I am sure most of you have seen the issues about slow ssd perfromance in some Surface Book models with the Samsung SSD. I recently purchased the i5/256gb/dgpu model and realized I probably won't use the dgpu that often besides playing games occasionally and didn't know if I could justify the price. I ended up ordering the i5/128gb/no dgpu and purchased a Samsung t1 250gb external ssd in case I need it. Right now I have both the laptops in front of me because I have not taken the previous one back yet. I will post the performance of the 256gb Surface book ssd as well as the 128gb. While the 256gb is nothing amazing for the price the 128gb seems to be considerably slower. Is this just my model or is this how all the 128gb ones are? I feel like with already giving up the extra disk space and dgpu and now the speed maybe it only makes sense to keep the higher end model.
Does the dgpu have much affect on performance of something like netflix or youtube?
I will also post the resulsts for the Samsung external ssd. Even that seems to have better write speeds than the 128gb ssd in the surface book.

128gb Surface book


256gb Surface book


250gb External Samsung t1 ssd

 

[Lethal_NFS]

Here are my results. i5, 128gb, no dgpu

And just for reference. This is my external 1TB 5400rpm hdd.

 

[orlbuckeye]

You can use SDXC cards instead of an external since you only have 2 USB slots. Amazon has some 256 gb and 512 gb SDXC cards that fit in the SD slot next to the USB ports. They have various speed 256 gb starting at around 79.

 

[Lethal_NFS]

You can use SDXC cards instead of an external since you only have 2 USB slots. Amazon has some 256 gb and 512 gb SDXC cards that fit in the SD slot next to the USB ports. They have various speed 256 gb starting at around 79.

Problem is the cards stick out. Really wish Microsoft designed it so the entire card fit in to the laptop.

 

[zerospace-net]

Problem is the cards stick out. Really wish Microsoft designed it so the entire card fit in to the laptop.

I think the issue you and others are having is that MS did not design the card slot in the SB to be used as expandable storage -- they designed it to be used as a regular card reader (you know, for doing things like retrieving photos off of a camera's memory card or something). Problem is, it seems that most people would rather have expandable storage in these (small-ish) SSD units than a built-in card reader. I don't care either way, personally, as 256GB is more than enough for me. My personal data is all stored on a mapped network drive NAS on my home network, and anything I need with me while away from my home office, I'll just dump onto a USB stick or memory card (or upload to OneDrive if it isn't anything sensitive) for temporary use.

 

[Lethal_NFS]

I think the issue you and others are having is that MS did not design the card slot in the SB to be used as expandable storage -- they designed it to be used as a regular card reader (you know, for doing things like retrieving photos off of a camera's memory card or something). Problem is, it seems that most people would rather have expandable storage in these (small-ish) SSD units than a built-in card reader. I don't care either way, personally, as 256GB is more than enough for me. My personal data is all stored on a mapped network drive NAS on my home network, and anything I need with me while away from my home office, I'll just dump onto a USB stick or memory card (or upload to OneDrive if it isn't anything sensitive) for temporary use.

Yet all my other laptops I have ever owned, the SD card fit all the way in. It does not matter what Microsoft intended. These products are for what the consumer intends. Microsoft screwed up the SD card slot in my opinion.

 

[Jackie Earley]

I would be highly annoyed with that myself as I was planning on being able to move my MicroSD card over to my Surface Book and it being flush with the unit. That will be annoying. Seems like there are quite a few straws with the 1st Surface Book. I'm going to wait for second generation Surface Book. In the meantime, my Surface Pro 3 is running strong.

I did buy quite a few 16GB flash drives so I'm fine with putting what I need on those if needed. But then again I am always using OneDrive and tether to my phone.

 

[orlbuckeye]

The Surface Book isn't configurable. You can't take the base without the DGP and upgrade to a 512 tb of 16 GB of ram. I like to store music and videos and I store them to the SDXC card. It's doesn't bother me that it sticks out. I keep the SD stick in all the time alone with my USB mouse receiver.

 

[zerospace-net]

Yet all my other laptops I have ever owned, the SD card fit all the way in. It does not matter what Microsoft intended. These products are for what the consumer intends. Microsoft screwed up the SD card slot in my opinion.

Yikes. That really wasn't meant to be an insult, so sorry you took it that way. I'm just saying, I don't think they designed it with usage as expandable storage in mind (I didn't comment on whether or not I thought that was right or wrong on Microsoft's part). The Surface Book is the first "laptop" I've owned in probably 6+ years, so I have no idea what other OEMs have done with their memory card slots. From my perspective, it doesn't really matter either way. My last laptop's memory card slot left the cards sticking out a good bit when in use, and that thing came with Windows Vista. Whether or not MS made a mistake with this design, they aren't just going to go and re-design the Surface Book right now anyways, so perhaps you should just move on from it if you dislike it so much. For those who are willing to work around it, there are adapters that make microSD cards sit more flush in the slot, and that seems like a mostly acceptable solution to the issue for those who really require using the slot for expandable storage.

 

[Lethal_NFS]

Yikes. That really wasn't meant to be an insult, so sorry you took it that way.

lol I was not insulted at all. I was just speaking about Microsoft needing to really focus on the consumer more. Words are easily taken the wrong way you are reading them.

 

[Daniel Rubino]

Is this just my model or is this how all the 128gb ones are?

The way Samsung drives are setup the larger they are the faster they are. So all devices are like this. FWIW, even new Dell XPS's all ship with Samsung drives as do Lenovos. However, it is usually just the write times that are affected, which for most users is not an issue.

Microsoft tried using some higher speed Toshiba ones, but due to higher fail rate they were nixed.

 

[thaddyusmaximus]

Here are Samsung Drivers that improved my write speeds pretty significant.

 

[Chuck Foltz]

also check to make sure Bit Locker is disabled on the drive. When bit locker is enabled it makes a huge difference. Check it don't assume its off.

 

[zerospace-net]

also check to make sure Bit Locker is disabled on the drive. When bit locker is enabled it makes a huge difference. Check it don't assume its off.

Bitlocker will always be enabled by default on the Surface Book, so just about anyone who isn't aware of that will have to disable it (if they want). Personally, I like the concept of Bitlocker on a portable device like SB, so I leave it enabled.

 

[kancherlapraneeth]

I read in some other post that read/write speeds will be low on 128GB model compared to 256/516GB.

 

[ecaggiani]

Here's mine (Core i7/512GB/16GB RAM - BitLocker is off)