Anyone replaced their home computer with the Surface Pro?

[Profoxcg]

I would never consider replacing my Desktop with the Pro. The screen isn't large enough, not enough RAM, and the video card is not made for gaming.

Well I would NEVER try to use that screen as a desktop replacement.. The 4GB of ram are - okay for most task, I have even conducted a Bim Coordination meeting from the surface yesterday at the office.
(if you dont know what a Bim coordination is - think 3D virtual building construction)

The surface handled it just fine. I had 2 larger models open as one, so for the type of thing I do, their onboard graphics is fine. - guys do not underestimate the Surface pro...

 

[Profoxcg]

I would never consider replacing my Desktop with the Pro. The screen isn't large enough, not enough RAM, and the video card is not made for gaming.

I noticed many of you guys are gamers. Anyone who is not a gamer and uses their computers to do "work" ?
anyone doing CAD or Bim ?

As I mentioned this thing runs Revit quite well. Do did illustrator.
sketchup is a little choppy at times if you have shadows on..

 

[Profoxcg]

another concern is heat / wear and tear on the internal components due to heat etc.
A desktop seems to have better ventilation.. granted they are not making "paper thin" imacs which are supposed to run extended hours.

I wonder what would be Microsoft's input.

 

[Sim2k]

I don't have time for games, and besides, that's what my PS3 is for. The Surface Pro is my entire office, it spends most of the day plugged into a 22 inch 1080p monitor, bluetooth mouse and keyboard. I use it to develop software in Visual Studio 2012 and it works brilliantly. The fact that I'm able to unplug it from the big screen and use it in tablet mode to surf the web on the couch has really made me fall in love with this thing.

 

[Nuspieds]

My old laptop (Lenovo ThinkPad W700) was both my home computer and my work/travel computer. As a result, yes, I replaced my home computer with the Surface Pro.

For the ThinkPad, I had a docking station; with the SP, I now use a 10-port USB 3.0 hub.

Besides the fact that everything works as it did on the W700, the SP is much, much faster!

 

[bosamar]

Anyone who is not a gamer and uses their computers to do "work"?

I do quite a bit of work on my RT, mostly editing word and excel. I actually use my RT to update one of my websites, it's a 'LiveSite' website and it works great on the RT.

 

[Chase_Payne]

I love my Surface and use it a lot, but I would never use a tablet ( or phone ) for banking or tax work.
Too easily lost / stolen.

My desktop is a monster case with 11 drive bays and water cooling etc. etc.
It takes a strong guy to lift it and would not be easy to remove ... well at least not nearly as easy as grabbing the tablet and going.

Everything has it's place.

Anything you want secure belongs on a desktop not a tablet -- in my opinion

Surface Pro Supports encryption.

If someone where to steal your tablet, and you have a high level certificate you can revoke it and it makes it near impossible for anyone to access the data. (However, you'll have to re-encrypt it again: if you don't have a backup it's lost forever)

 

[mtalinm]

I have a laptop (Lenovo x2300) and desktop (Dell optima), both with i7 chips, 16G memory, and a silly amount of disk space. I have rarely used either since getting the surface pro.

it is my "anything, everywhere" machine. I hook it up to a 27" monitor with 2560x1440 resolution when at my desk and plug in a trackball but continue to use the typecover.

the only times I revert to the other machines is when I need to do intense statistical processing, which runs 3x faster on those rigs. but that's not too often.

I teach MBA students for a living and use this for that every day. love marking up powerpoint slides with the pen during class

that the battery lasts only 5 hours is not a huge issue for me as I am regularly near an outlet. I leave one charger at home and one at work, don't carry one except for travel.

 

[Profoxcg]

how is the "heat" from the surface being used all the time as a primary?

 

[machistmo]

No heat issues here. So far so good. I suspect heat issues would be more likely to arise for those using the Surface with USB to Video. My setup uses the Mini-DP to HDMI. I am loving this new Dell Monitor as it functions as a dock as well.

 

[Nuspieds]

No heat issues here. So far so good. I suspect heat issues would be more likely to arise for those using the Surface with USB to Video.

In my setup, although I have a USB hub, I am not using a USB to video connection and prior to the firmware upgrade, from time to time, when I rebooted, I would get the thermometer icon displayed. The first time it happened, I freaked out! :shocked:

It was pretty warm to the touch, actually, but I would just power off and power on again, and it would boot no issues and no more thermometer icon. The problem was intermittent enough for me to follow some threads relating to the heat and I eventually downloaded a utility that reported the temperature. I eventually uninstalled the utility because although I can't remember what my readings were, they were not near the numbers that the posters who had heat problems were reporting.

After the firmware upgrade, however, not only have I not had a recurrence of the thermometer icon, but my Surface Pro definitely is no longer as hot to the touch as it used to be. As a matter of fact, I wouldn't even say it is hot at all; rather, just normal.

 

[HD_Dude]

I use my Surface Pro on the road for entertainment. Never at home, and never for serious work on the road. That's not because of the Surface. Rather, it's because I'm already geared up.

I have a killer laptop - a Sony 17" VAIO CORE i7 with 8GB RAM and BluRay player; a trio of the old Sony VAIO desktops - the last ones Sony made, with liquid cooling, upgraded to Win7; a Dell XPS15 laptop, CORE i7, 8GB RAM, BluRay road warrior courtesy of my company; a less powerful Dell and VAIO laptop for the kids, an ASUS EE upgraded to Win8, etc, etc.

I love the Surface. But my two main machines, the high-end Sony and Dell, blow its doors. They're heavy, which the Surface is not. But crazy as it sounds, the battery on the killer laptops is about the same as the Surface.

Frankly, the Surface is my fun machine. And fun it is! Love that bad boy.

But if I'm going to do some serious audio or video editing in a hotel suite, I will pick one of the battleships, not my PT boat. Again, this is no slam. Just - why use a .38 when you have a .45?