Poirots Progeny
New member
M3 unless you are in the 1% and like to overspend or have "the best"
How does being in the 1% equate to looking to overspend? Stone people can afford things. What's the issue with that?
M3 unless you are in the 1% and like to overspend or have "the best"
M3 unless you are in the 1% and like to overspend or have "the best"
You know that the m3 is not enough to handle what i want to use it for.
So its better if you give me an correct answer as you know how i will use it.
How does being in the 1% equate to looking to overspend? Stone people can afford things. What's the issue with that?
Another computer choice like Surface Book or another OEM option then..face it you are trying to put a square peg in round hole.
So i guess i only had 2 options.
Bying a SP4 with a i5 that fits my needs or buy a laptop, a tablet and a wacom.
I might be an ***** going for option one, but it saves space when traveling. And it saved me alot of money in the end.
I guess you would pick option two instead.
Well technically the difference between M3 and the i5 most people are getting is 400 not 600. And all you are saying is buy something lower price to send a message even if you can't use it for what you would like to use it. How is that smart? Besides, the profit margin on the m3 is probably in line with the profit margin on the i5, all these devices are overpriced. In fact, in my opinion, the M3 should find its way into the Surface line (not the pro) and then it will be an amazing device.
In this particular thread the OP was asking about gaming and I do not recall any of your answers sticking to that topic. And I also think you are naive to think that all the components of the M3 are made specifically made for the M3 and thus the M3 has less problems. If anything the M3 has less reported problems because very few people bought it and very few people push it to its limits.
Other than that I was one of the first to say that a fan-less M3 with 8Gb of ram and 256 SSD would probably be my ideal device. But most people that bought the i5 bought it because it makes sense for their work, you are not the only one that has seen the light. If I read this correctly you are retired so you could probably accept the fact that for your light use the M3 is good enough while for us is not.
Lastly, I don't think we signed up for an apple-hater forum, while everyone knows they are overpriced they used to be also very reliable devices. The only macbook I had from work was with me for 6 years and was working beautifully even after all that time. Overpriced, probably (I didn't pay for it so no idea how much it was) but at the time buying the same quality in a PC would have required a lot of research. Compared to that the SP4 doesn't fair that well as it launches with problems from the start and has (even for the M3) a similar price point.
I love the idea of the m3 and it was my first choice for the SP4. So I picked one up. Right away I LOVED that it was fanless -- definitely its best feature. I loathe noisy fans on computers.
Unfortunately, for my use case, it simply wasn't quite there yet. Here are the primary limitations of the m3 that led me to instead go with the Core i7:
- No 8GB or 16GB RAM option. I'm simply baffled as to why Microsoft won't offer these configuration options. I think this is easily the biggest reason why the m3 option doesn't work for me.
- No 256GB or 512GB SSD options. I could probably make do with 128GB + mSD storage if I had to, but 256GB is a lot roomier space-wise for my needs.
One common use case of mine, to which the m3 in its only configuration cannot handle, is being docked to a 3440x1440 ultrawide monitor while doing the following at the same time:
- Skyping on the Surface screen
- Having Google Maps (or, say Zillow) loaded on the ultrawide monitor
This will slow the m3 down to a crawl. Just having more than a few Chrome tabs open on the docked monitor while Skyping is an unbearably stuttery and slow experience. Switching between tabs takes 2-3 seconds each -- it's awful. I think 8GB of RAM would really help this device in these kinds of situations, but alas it's not to be this generation.
A Surface Pro 5 with a next gen Core M chip, 8+GB RAM, and 256+GB SSD will likely be my ideal device. Until that comes out though, the Core i7 will fit my needs the best -- I'm using it as my desktop (with dock), couch tablet, and my primary note-taking device for reviews. The Surface Book was never an option for me: I hate the laptop form factor and the tablet portion doesn't have a kickstand, so SP4 is it. The i7 fan kicks in more often than I'd like (always when Skyping), but when it's not being taxed much (i.e. no Skype, no gaming, little-to-no multi-tasking) it stays completely silent. Being able to browse the web -- what I spend most of my time doing anyway -- silently is still a huge improvement over my prior desktop.
"Cost for i7 and dock... way more"
My company bought me a SP4 Core i5 (8GB/512GB), type cover, and dock for telecommuting work (I'm a Software Engineer), so I actually didn't have to pay for the dock/type cover, only my personal Core i7 device.
During the work day I have my work SP4 docked to the big monitor with a mechanical keyboard/mouse while my personal SP4 is off to the side with the type cover attached. At the end of my work day I swap the SP4s: the work one gets the type cover and the personal one gets the dock with the ultrawide monitor and full keyboard/mouse.
It's a pretty awesome setup that maximizes the use of the "free" type cover and dock for both work and play.
Boltman2013...to anyone who does not believe in the power of the M3:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0XuKORufGk
i5 is worth it over the m3 for many things. (especially games/graphics) However, i7 is only a marginal upgrade, if any at all, for the majority of things people might do on a surface computer.
What about for gaming? I haven't tried the i7 but I would have thought the iris graphics would give a decent performance boost in gaming