Fan noise is nothing

[Steve Ridges]

I finally got the fan to kick on. I was running a virus scan. I've never heard a fan so quiet. I was sitting at my desk working on my main machine with my surface sitting there doing nothing so I thought I'd kick off a deep scan. After a while, I heard a faint whoosh. It took me a min to figure out what it was. I felt the back and this is the warmest it's gotten but it is certainly not uncomfortable.

I can't believe all the freaking idiots that reviewed this and proclaimed it was an utter failure. I've now encountered everyone one of their "Show Stopper" issues such as the weight, thickness, desktop scaling, battery life, noise, and storage space. Every single one of those issues has been blown out of proportion by the media. It's gotten to the point that I don't even read Paul Thorrotts site anymore because he's simply an idiot.

The more I use this device, the more I love it. Thank you Microsoft!

 

[ryzama]

How is real world battery life? I am trying to decide between the surface pro and Lenovo yoga. Only thing making me second guess the pro is I am a road warrior and a little worried about the battery.

 

[1101x10]

If it was encrusted with diamonds and Microsoft gave it away free Paul Thurrott would still find something to moan about.

 

[VagrantWade]

If it was encrusted with diamonds and Microsoft gave it away free Paul Thurrott would still find something to moan about.

Really? He was stroking Microsoft hard basically bashing consumers who were claiming there were shortages of Pros at stores. Look at his comment on his "128 sells out immediately" article;

"Update: The standard anti-Microsoft movement is busy trying to debunk this story because some Best Buys didn't get many (or even any) Surface Pro units yet. Fair enough. But Microsoft's online store got more than that, so no need to worry about whether this sell-out is genuine. I'm sure they could have sold even more if they could have delivered more to stores."

He's an idiot. He basically says there isn't a shortage, and then said if they could have delivered more they would have sold more. Which is exactly what a shortage entails..

 

[Steve Ridges]

How is real world battery life? I am trying to decide between the surface pro and Lenovo yoga. Only thing making me second guess the pro is I am a road warrior and a little worried about the battery.

Battery life straight out of the box is exactly like they say - between 3 to 5 hours depending on what you do. What they don't tell you is that the screen is extremely bright so I have mine set at 15% for battery and 50% plugged in. Then you have all kinds of additional power management settings ranging from altering the CPU clocks to PCI express bus settings. I'm still playing with the settings to find what's best for me but I think I'll get 6 hours easy and possibly more.

Incidentally, while I was at Staples picking up some things, I took a stroll down their laptop/ultrabook isle. Funny how that VAST majority showed UP TO ~4.5 hours. The Surface Pro is right smack dab in the middle of everyone else when you compare apples to apples. Compared to other tablets, no, the battery doesn't last as long. Compared to other ultra books? It's just fine.

 

[coolqf]

Really? He was stroking Microsoft hard basically bashing consumers who were claiming there were shortages of Pros at stores. Look at his comment on his "128 sells out immediately" article;

"Update: The standard anti-Microsoft movement is busy trying to debunk this story because some Best Buys didn't get many (or even any) Surface Pro units yet. Fair enough. But Microsoft's online store got more than that, so no need to worry about whether this sell-out is genuine. I'm sure they could have sold even more if they could have delivered more to stores."

He's an idiot. He basically says there isn't a shortage, and then said if they could have delivered more they would have sold more. Which is exactly what a shortage entails..

Maybe he means to say that if more were available the device would still have sold out. He's trying to argue against people that call the sell out a farce simply because a location may have only had one in stock or none at all, for example.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

 

[Josh Mackey]

Maybe he means to say that if more were available the device would still have sold out. He's trying to argue against people that call the sell out a farce simply because a location may have only had one in stock or none at all, for example.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

Well, all stores in my area only got 1 128GB model (if any at all). I think my city got 5 128GB models in total.

 

[Ekon]

Just got my pro a few hours ago and have been using it non stop to drain the battery. I got it at around 12 this afternoon and its still goin. The fan has turned on but, the only way I knew it was on was because I put the Pro up to my ear and I still could barely hear it. Believe me, there are fans but, they are unnoticeable.

Sent from Surface Pro

 

[polbit]

When I first played with the Pro at BB, I could definitely hear the fan. It was sort of a high-pitched noise that was annoying. Two days ago when I got my Pro at MS Store, I listened to two floor models, and they were silent. My own Pro is basically silent as well, even in bed playing with it I couldn't hear the fans. Very impressed, even if it can get a little toasty.

 

[Ekon]

So while doing some light surfing and 1 or 2 YouTube video watching, then switching to playing Torchlight 2 for few minutes, the fan did kick on and I retract my "unnoticeable" statement. Now I must mention, I am in a library at the moment. So it is fairly quiet in here. The fan is on steady and I can hear it speeding up and then slowing down. It is pretty loud but nothing to complain about, it needs to cool itself down. The fans definitely work. There is air flying out of this thing. It is also vibrating the table im at. Not bothering me at all though. Work little fella, work.

As I was typing this, the fans turned way down and its unnoticeable now. Not a problem at all.

 

[smoledman]

I literally had to put the Surface up to my ear to hear the fan. It does get very warm, but even with fan it's very quiet. Now imagine a fanless design because there's a Haswell chip in there. Game, set & match!

 

[jsgiv]

When playing a game (Simcity) for an extended time - it does become noticeable with a bit of an annoying high pitch hum - bur not really noticeable in a room with the tv and other background noise on.. I can imagine it becomes a bit loud in a very quiet setting though...

Overall - not too bad - once I closed the game it was silent again within 2-4 minutes...

 

[toddpart]

When playing a game (Simcity) for an extended time -

Completely off topic question (sorry) but do you have the brand new release of SimCity installed on your Surface Pro? I can't get mine to start...keeps telling me that it will not run in a virtual environment; trying to determine if it is the game or if it is the Origin client.

 

[Po_MD]

Completely off topic question (sorry) but do you have the brand new release of SimCity installed on your Surface Pro? I can't get mine to start...keeps telling me that it will not run in a virtual environment; trying to determine if it is the game or if it is the Origin client.

I know that those trying to run BF3 are experiencing that same issue, I'd refer to that forum on this site for an answer

 

[gootdude]

You need Origin client 9.1.14.
There's an official client that was linked during the Beta that fixes the virtual environment issue. This is the origin client, so you have to remove your previous origin client and leverage this. Here's the link to the original forum post: EA Forums Scroll down to the post from EA_mikenoface

Here's the direct link to the client he linked via dropbox:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4885867/Origin-HL-94.zip

 

[Dewg_Zom]

Totally off topic, but Origin should die a horrible death. EA is being too cheap to offer their content in an already tested, mature system like Steam. So they roll out their own content delivery and DRM service - which is painful due to it's immaturity.

 

[jsgiv]

Just saw the question - posts above are correct - figured out you needed the updated client in order to play the game.

I also agree - it's mind numbingly irritating that I had to wait for 20 minutes earlier today to "play" the game I just paid $60 for..

I'd ask for a refund - but I'm of the opinion now that I'd rather not waste anymore of my time chatting with EA.... that and hoping the delays get better or they actually open up an offline mode..

Sorry - didn't mean to completely take this thread off topic..

 

[KingCrimson]

The fan noise is literally inaudible unless you put your ear up to the vent and that is hardly a valid use case.