Microcenter getting a special "batch" of i5 128GB tablets, is MS trying to make fools of customers?

[jnjroach]

That is one option. Hopefully the replacement unit I am getting has a Hynix Drive... Not sure if its 50/50 chance or 10/90 chance. Microsoft doesn't have that info.

I don't think its a 50/50 chance, I think it going to based on what was available during the time that specific lot was produced...

 

[grumpy]

A Hynix drive is probably preferable considering this bug affecting certain Samsung drives.

 

[GoodBytes]

Microsoft never mentioned the speed of the SSD. Also, it is common practice for manufactures to use several vendors for parts to meet demand. Even, despite how massive Intel is, had trouble manufacturing the original Surface Pro 2 model, and Microsoft had to switch to another model (a bit faster, thankfully). It sucks but is like that.

 

[GreyFox7]

A Hynix drive is probably preferable considering this bug affecting certain Samsung drives.

If you follow the steps in this thread does it improve your results?
Sammy owes a firmware fix to correct this.

 

[slingxshot]

Microsoft never mentioned the speed of the SSD. Also, it is common practice for manufactures to use several vendors for parts to meet demand. Even, despite how massive Intel is, had trouble manufacturing the original Surface Pro 2 model, and Microsoft had to switch to another model (a bit faster, thankfully). It sucks but is like that.

I am okay with that and understand that some companies have to do that, however only if performance is marginal. Here we are talking about significant, it is like getting 802.11g instead of 802.11n wifi chip or 802.11n instead of ac. The difference is huge between n and ac.

 

[Kif]

This tablet is not cheap that's the point. When you pay this much money you want exactly whats advertised. Second of all if I buy myself a 600$ video card for my desktop computer, I expect same performance as every other video card the manuf is producing. Samething for CPUs, etc, etc. To me this is the same thing.

The problem is that it sounds like you have already made up your mind before all of the facts are in. You're determined that the Samsung SSD is the issue and a Hynix SSD drive will fix it. The issue needs to worked a little deeper before that conclusion can be drawn.

 

[JackieInCo]

I'm keeping mine. In my use so far, I have not noticed slow write speeds and I surely don't do anything on this computer that would need anything super fast anyways. I enjoy using this too much to take it back and it's not worth the hassle just to get a bigger/faster SSD that I will never notice the difference. I'm too busy using it.

 

[slingxshot]

UPDATE:

I got a replacement unit under warranty. Same tablet. So I booted it went through the setup nothing interesting there, the only thing I noticed is that the final set up was a lot faster. Right away went into Device manager, and see the Hynix Drive. Benchmarked get the expected results, I got 306MB/s sequential write previously I was peaking at 130MB/s. I am sure there are other differences like access time etc, but my most important number was write speed.

 

[phositadc]

For what it's worth I've had to exchange some SP3s, and I also encountered one that peaked at about 125 MBps write. It was also an i5 128GB. So I do think it's possible that there's a slower SSD in some units, but I bought mine from the MS store, so they aren't limited to microcenter.

 

[megatronium]

I have this one: http://ssd.userbenchmark.com/SpeedTest/4739/HFS256G3AMNB-2200A

i7/256

 

[GreyFox7]

I have this one: http://ssd.userbenchmark.com/SpeedTest/4739/HFS256G3AMNB-2200A

i7/256

I like this site.
Their results for SP3s with Samsung 256 SSD
http://ssd.userbenchmark.com/SpeedTest/12210/SAMSUNG-MZMTE256HMHP-000MV

 

[VickiFL]

I just tried it and got this result:

PC Test Results
Microsoft Surface Pro 3
Health: 69%
GOOD ?
(Compared to identical PCs)



Speed: 50%
SAIL BOAT ?
(Compared to all PCs)
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"I just benched my build..."
Processor
70.8% is a good CPU score, this system can handle the vast majority of general computing tasks but may struggle with intensive workstation tasks such as video editing, software development and multi graphics card gaming.
Graphics
12.2% is a very low 3D score, this system can only handle very basic 3D games but it's fine for general computing tasks.
Boot Drive
The boot partition is located on an SSD. This facilitates fast boots and decent responsiveness from the system.
Memory
4GB is enough RAM to run any version of Windows comfortably and it allows for large file and system caches which enable a very responsive system.
OS Version
Windows 8.1 is the most recent version of windows, and the best to date in our opinion.
COMPONENT SCORES
The graphs show user score (x) vs frequency (y).

SystemMicrosoft Surface Pro 3 (53 builds)
MotherboardMicrosoft Surface Pro 3
Memory1.7 GB free of 4 GB @ 1.6 GHz
Display2160 x 1440 - 32 Bit colors
OSWindows 8.1
BIOS Date20141016
Uptime12.9 Days
Run DateDec 05 '14 at 14:48
Run Duration160 Seconds
Run UserUSA-User
Ambient CPU2%

ProcessorSpeed?Single core?Dual core?Multi core?
All CPUs
Intel Core i5-4300U
SOCKET 0, 1 CPU, 2 cores, 4 threads.
174 User results - Rank 222 - 65.4%
Base clock 2.5 GHz, turbo 2.6 GHz (avg)

Performance health: 80 % ?
Rank 17470.8%
SC Int 81.7
SC Float 84.6
SC Mixed 81

79% 82.4 Pts
DC Int 134
DC Float 124
DC Mixed 138

65% 132 Pts
MC Int 187
MC Float 217
MC Mixed 205

39% 203 Pts



Worst: 22%↑
70.8%Best: 73%




























Graphics CardSpeed?3D DX9?3D DX10?3D DX11?
All GPUs
Intel HD 4400 (Mobile 1.0/1.1 GHz)
Microsoft(1414 0005) 2GB
1273 User results - Rank 233 - 11.1%
Driver: igdumdim64.dll Ver. 10.18.10.3496

Performance health: 61 % ?
Rank 21612.2%
Lighting 14.2
Reflection 16
Parallax 18.7

9% 16.3 Pts
MRender 15.8
Gravity 6.7
Splatting 16.4

16% 13 Pts



Worst: 1%↑
12.2%Best: 17%

















DrivesSpeed?Sequential?Random 4k?Deep queue 4k?
All SSDs
Samsung PM851 mSATA 128GB
91GB free
26 User results - Rank 336 - 65.7%
Firmware: EXT41M0Q Max speed: SATA 3.0 600 MB/s
SYSTEM NCQ 4KALIGNED SSD TRIM ?
Rank 33066.7%
Read 465
Write 134
Mixed 198

58% 266 MB/s
4K Read 26.8
4K Write 40.1
4K Mixed 9.18

74% 25.4 MB/s
DQ Read 22.1
DQ Write 132
DQ Mixed 29.1

36% 61.1 MB/s



Worst: 55%↑
66.7%Best: 87%















Please enter the brand and model of your USB drive.
e.g. Transcend Jetflash 700, Lexar S73, Adata S102 Pro etc.
All USBs
SDXC Card 64GB
59GB free, PID null
23 User results - Rank 392 - 24.1%


Performance health: 83 % ?
Rank 36526.7%
Read 43.1
Write 11.2
Mixed 16.6

24% 23.6 MB/s
4K Read 3.5
4K Write 1.26
4K Mixed 0.93

88% 1.9 MB/s



Worst: 10%↑
26.7%Best: 44%















TYPICAL SURFACE PRO 3 BUILD (Compare 53 builds)See popular component choices, score breakdowns and rankings.
System: Microsoft Surface Pro 3
CPU
Core i5-4300U
Intel
Speed: 65%, 174 samples
GPU
HD 4400 (Mobile 1.0/1.1 GHz)
Intel
Speed: 11%, 1273 samples
SSD
MZMTE256HMHP-000MV 256GB
Samsung
Speed: 79%, 19 samples
HDD
2115 128GB
Asmt
Speed: 0%, 0 samples