Surface book internals

[Teague Kelley]

I haven't owned a windows computer in 9 years. I've been on apple up until now. So, with that, I just purchased the basic i5 surfacebook. Is there any way to upgrade the internals on the inside or am I stuck with what I have?

 

[tweedie]

nah, unless you want to be cutting into the surface and change the ssd, but that is a bit of a risky job itself. Even if you cut into it, I don't think the RAM is upgradable, but I could be wrong on that.

I have read somewhere that you can change the keyboard base to the one with the nvidia graphic in but probably only worth doing if you got the lower graphic version of it (intel?)

So the only thing that is upgradable that I know of is by getting one of those micro storage adapters and a micro sd card so that it doesn't stick out of the device and act as if you got another hard drive (but don't expect ssd performance)

 

[RicharDeanAreMe]

It's not upgradable at all. The way you buy it, is the way it always will be. Most super portable computers are this way unfortunately. Enjoy your new machine. It's a nice one.

 

[hopmedic]

RicharDean is correct. The Surface book (and pretty much everything in the Surface line, except the Studio, which can have drives upgraded) is not upgradeable. And no, you cannot (at this point) exchange the keyboard for an upgraded one with better GPU. This may change, but for now, Microsoft will not sell them separately, and even recently when I had to exchange my SB for a warranty replacement, the directions said that the base and clipboard pair could not be separated, that they would not accept return if you swapped them.

 

[tweedie]

And no, you cannot (at this point) exchange the keyboard for an upgraded one with better GPU.

pretty sure there is a few news around the web about the fact you can change the keyboard base to a better GPU (https://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2015/10/23/surface-book-user-upgrade/), but obviously the tricky problem is getting hold of one. its best to get the highest spec at what you can afford to get.

 

[Matty]

I haven't owned a windows computer in 9 years. I've been on apple up until now. So, with that, I just purchased the basic i5 surfacebook. Is there any way to upgrade the internals on the inside or am I stuck with what I have?

Great question Teague Kelley.

As fellow members have said. Unfortunately it's not really upgradeable. Like the new MacBook Pros (2016), what you order is what you are 'stuck' with. This is why I like the laptops from 4 years ago so much more because you could change the RAM, Storage and even remove the CD Drive for another RAID storage drive. So you have to keep what you ordered. There is nothing wrong with the i5. Definitely enough power for every day tasks

Hope you enjoy your new Surface Book!

 

[hopmedic]

pretty sure there is a few news around the web about the fact you can change the keyboard base to a better GPU (https://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2015/10/23/surface-book-user-upgrade/), but obviously the tricky problem is getting hold of one. its best to get the highest spec at what you can afford to get.

If there is news around the web to this effect, it is wrong. If you exchange your Surface Book for warranty work, you must exchange both parts of the device, as I had to do. There is no source of keyboards without clipboards. Note that the article you've quoted is almost a year and a half old, and still, there is no "Surface Book Base" available on Microsoft's website. This article was written as speculation, not with inside information.

Now, I posted a while back that I was told by a Microsoft employee that in the future you would be able to upgrade the base (http://forums.windowscentral.com/microsoft-surface-book/448967-suggestion-sb2.html#post3613377), but at this point it is not an option that Microsoft offers. You can certainly swap the bases and they'll work, but you'd have to buy a whole second device to swap with, which defeats the purpose.