Light programming on Microsoft Surface 3 (4 GB)

[Sport Driver]

Hello. So I'm in process of buying Microsoft Surface 3 with 4GB of RAM and I will also use it for programming. So I was wandering if it would be good enough for basic programming. I will be learning to program in JavaScript , HTML and CSS. So if you have any experience I would be very grateful if you said it out loud

 

[sinime]

Your mileage may vary, but I used a 4GB RAM Surface pro 2 for coding in VS2013 a couple years back and from what I recall, it handled it OK... So, if your sticking to web pages and such, 4GB should be enough.

I wound up trading the 4GB SP2 in for an 8GB because I quickly determined that 128GB storage wasn't enough, needed at least 256GB which automatically meant 8GB RAM on the SP2. Although I find I'm running out of storage space these days (been debating to a clean install of the AU).

What IDE(s) are you wanting to use, if any? They should have a minimum system requirements.

FWIW, VS2015 Community Edition states if only needs:
•1 GB of RAM (1.5 GB if running on a virtual machine)

https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/downloads/visual-studio-2015-system-requirements-vs.aspx#1

 

[sinime]

Hmmm, was trying to find the current requirements for the emulator in VS2015 and came across the VS2015 Android Emulator requirements...

•6 GB or more of RAM.
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt228280.aspx#System

So, if you might want to dabble with Android apps using VS2015 Community, 4GB won't be enough.

Depending on where you buy it, you might be able to try it out for a couple of weeks and return it if it doesn't perform OK.

 

[Sport Driver]

I'm staring studying so I decided to wait a bit since I don't really know at the moment what we will be programming. Will rather wait and buy SP4 then spending money on Surface 3 and having to trade it in few months.

 

[sinime]

The more I think about it, I'd go with at least 8GB RAM if I was in your shoes. Even if you don't need more than 4GB now, it would suck if you were locked in and later found it wasn't enough for something.

 

[Sport Driver]

The more I think about it, I'd go with at least 8GB RAM if I was in your shoes. Even if you don't need more than 4GB now, it would suck if you were locked in and later found it wasn't enough for something.

I know, future proofing and that. I will have to think about it, but it won't be my primary machine, I have PC with i5 and 8 GB of RAM.

 

[3earnhardt3]

I *CAN* run Visual Studio 2015 Community Edition to work on my LOB apps for my small business, and I have the 2GB version. I strongly discourage anyone from doing so however, as it just takes forever to do anything, and I doubt 2GB more RAM would magically make the Atom in this thing work faster. I would get a Surface Pro 3 if I were you, it is nearly as fast as the 4, and there are listings on SlickDeals for $599 or less on a regular basis.

 

[Chintan Gohel]

I know, future proofing and that. I will have to think about it, but it won't be my primary machine, I have PC with i5 and 8 GB of RAM.

then use your pc for the heavy stuff and leave the surface for the light stuff like browsing and creative work