Questions about the Pro 3 and different models

[Mathias Lindberg]

Hey, I have the opportunity to get a Surface Pro 3 i3/i5 with 64GB/128GB + Type Cover for 37% less than the normal market price, and I have some questions about the device, and the two different models.

I use the HP Stream 11 for school and I really love how quiet it is and for how long it goes (6+ hours of working), but it's a little sluggish, and I really miss a high-end tablet like the Surface RT I used to own. For that reason, I'm looking to take advantage of this 37% off the Pro 3 offer while it's still available.

My questions are regarding the fans and the performance. Will it be silent during web browsing, using Word and watching YouTube? By silent I mean almost as silent as a fanless device, or as close as you could possibly get with fans. I don't want to hear the fans when I want to be working in quiet peace without any disturbing noise. Of course if I'm doing something more intensive, like watching YouTube, it doesn't matter if there's the most tiny amount of fan spinning, but nothing audible over the video playing on a lower sound.

Then there's the performance. As mentioned, this is primarily a device for light school work and content consumption when I want to relax. I have a gaming laptop, which is also very quiet despite running games, browsers and YouTube videos for hours upon hours, so I don't need to do any serious gaming on my mobile device. However, I can't always be at my gaming desktop, and sometimes I'm left somewhere with nothing but mobile devices and nothing to do, or I just need to access my World of Warcraft account to check my Garrison.

I've heard about throttling issues, and I want to know if that will affect me. Can I play Minecraft on medium settings with Optifine at 60 fps without the fans going over the sound of the game? Can I access my Garrison like I would be able to on a Core i5 MacBook Air? How does it compare to a laptop in that sense of performance? I really want to know, because I've found myself in the situation of needing to run a game on my mobile device, and not having the power and performance to do so. My HP Stream can manage 60 fps in Minecraft with all the settings low, but it has no fans, so I can't tell if the equivalent task would have the Surface Pro 3 roaring and disturbing everyone's peace and quiet.

As you can probably tell, fan noise is really important to me. I don't want to know this device has a fan, unless I'm playing a game, and in that case, I don't want people to be disturbed by the noise, including myself, as I absolutely hate fan noise.

 

[Witness]

You have a pretty specific set of requirements. Based on what I've read, you should just go for the i5 SP3. If you've got the bread to go 256GB, go for it since you'll have 8GB RAM instead of the 4GB. As for the fan noise, it's really not loud at all in my opinion. I hardly notice it and I wouldn't characterize it as disturbing noise.

Not sure where you are buying the SP3, but if it's at the Microsoft Store, you can always test drive it for 30 days risk free.

​Good luck.

 

[Mathias Lindberg]

You have a pretty specific set of requirements. Based on what I've read, you should just go for the i5 SP3. If you've got the bread to go 256GB, go for it since you'll have 8GB RAM instead of the 4GB. As for the fan noise, it's really not loud at all in my opinion. I hardly notice it and I wouldn't characterize it as disturbing noise.

Not sure where you are buying the SP3, but if it's at the Microsoft Store, you can always test drive it for 30 days risk free.

​Good luck.

There's no physical Microsoft Store here in Denmark, so I'm not sure if that test drive program is available, but it definitely looks like I should buy the i5 . It's through a work benefit program, but they sadly only have the i3 with 64 GB and the i5 with 128 GB. I use nothing but a 128 GB SSD on my desktop, so storage is no issue, but I guess more RAM would have been nice. Thanks!

 

[v0lum3]

I have had the i5 128gb since it was released here in Denmark last year, I can tell you its an awesome piece of hardware. I have a usecase like yours, doing my master thesis right now, so writing a lot, reading, taking notes with pen, watching YouTube videos, and playing the occasional World of Warcraft! All part of the work process!

The fan will spin up when you are playing games or during intensive tasks, like video editing or data-calculations, but surfing, watching videos, writing, or even doing it all at once won't tax the system and I almost never hear the fan. Even if it is on, its one of the quietest I've heard... might be because I had a Mac before this hehe! You will be surprised how quite it is imo.. it sounds like wind in the trees!

As for the throttling, I don't find it bad at all, and I can play WoW on medium settings, at 1440x900 with 40-60 fps without any trouble! And the fan will wind up, but again it will definitely be more quite than everybody else MacBook Airs and Pros doing the same things!

Hope this helps!

 

[Mathias Lindberg]

I have had the i5 128gb since it was released here in Denmark last year, I can tell you its an awesome piece of hardware. I have a usecase like yours, doing my master thesis right now, so writing a lot, reading, taking notes with pen, watching YouTube videos, and playing the occasional World of Warcraft! All part of the work process!

The fan will spin up when you are playing games or during intensive tasks, like video editing or data-calculations, but surfing, watching videos, writing, or even doing it all at once won't tax the system and I almost never hear the fan. Even if it is on, its one of the quietest I've heard... might be because I had a Mac before this hehe! You will be surprised how quite it is imo.. it sounds like wind in the trees!

As for the throttling, I don't find it bad at all, and I can play WoW on medium settings, at 1440x900 with 40-60 fps without any trouble! And the fan will wind up, but again it will definitely be more quite than everybody else MacBook Airs and Pros doing the same things!

Hope this helps!

Thanks for the reply! Notebookcheck does say the fans are silent and still quite low even during more intensive tasks. Also thanks for talking about WoW as I've yet to find anyone who tried running the game closer to a 1366x768 resolution on medium settings, and it's good to know it will run !

 

[CliveSinclair]

Always, always, always buy the most powerful/largest storage device you can get/afford. More powerful CPU (say an i7) means it will be working at a lower capacity than the i3.

How often do you hear someone complaining that a computer is too powerful, or has too much storage?

"Buy low price - buy twice".

 

[anon(7901790)]

I have the i5/128 SP3 with a 128GB microSD card. I chose the i5/128 model because that was the best option for me. It's powerful enough to run Photoshop and Lightroom with no worries and it has enough storage for MY needs. Since I have Office365 with 1TB of OneDrive storage (upgraded to unlimited), I don't have to worry about storage.

For horse power, I have an i7/32GB tower with a 3TB and a 4TB internal HDDs and a 4GB Invidia graphics card.

 

[Hans Swolfs]

If you can and want to pay for the i5 : Do it. You'll also be a bit more futureproof with a slightly better cpu.

It will do all you describe without too much fan noise the fan has never disturbed me and indeed I must think hard wether I actually already heard it spin

So go for the i5 and never look back