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Pro 4/4/128 or 3/8/256?

agfoxx

New Member
Good morning,

I need some advice please.

My wife and I are going to California for three weeks.

I'm a very keen photographer.

Just thinking about what I'll do with the gazillion images I will no doubt shoot there, I am convinced I need to buy a laptop to do some initial selection and processing while still on the road.

Currently, I'm using a work laptop - I am not allowed to install any non-work software on it.

I'm torn between a Surface Pro 4/i5/4Gb/128 and a Surface Pro 3/i5/8/256 which I can get relatively cheaply on eBay.

I've got one of those 2TB hard drives which can backup directly from an SD card, so storage will not be an issue.

Whichever laptop I buy will get sold on after the trip - I don't need a work laptop AND a personal laptop.

I use Fuji. I only shoot RAW - Fuji's RAW files are quite large.

At home, I use Lightroom/Nik mostly, but my machine at home is an i7/16Gb affair, and I'm not sure how well Lightroom will behave on Surface's limited resources. So I'm willing to give RawTherapee or similar a try if needs be.

I do NOT want a Mac.

Any advice?

Which would you prefer, - a newer processor with less RAM and a better screen (i.e., Surface Pro 4) or an older processor with double the RAM and still a very good screen (i.e., Surface Pro 3)?

Thank you.
 
Good morning,

I need some advice please.

My wife and I are going to California for three weeks.

I'm a very keen photographer.

Just thinking about what I'll do with the gazillion images I will no doubt shoot there, I am convinced I need to buy a laptop to do some initial selection and processing while still on the road.

Currently, I'm using a work laptop - I am not allowed to install any non-work software on it.

I'm torn between a Surface Pro 4/i5/4Gb/128 and a Surface Pro 3/i5/8/256 which I can get relatively cheaply on eBay.

I've got one of those 2TB hard drives which can backup directly from an SD card, so storage will not be an issue.

Whichever laptop I buy will get sold on after the trip - I don't need a work laptop AND a personal laptop.

I use Fuji. I only shoot RAW - Fuji's RAW files are quite large.

At home, I use Lightroom/Nik mostly, but my machine at home is an i7/16Gb affair, and I'm not sure how well Lightroom will behave on Surface's limited resources. So I'm willing to give RawTherapee or similar a try if needs be.

I do NOT want a Mac.

Any advice?

Which would you prefer, - a newer processor with less RAM and a better screen (i.e., Surface Pro 4) or an older processor with double the RAM and still a very good screen (i.e., Surface Pro 3)?

Thank you.
Bro, go for sp4. It is much better than the sp3 models. As you don't have any issues with the storage capacity, and if money is not the concern then certainly go for sp4.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk
 
Bro, go for sp4. It is much better than the sp3 models. As you don't have any issues with the storage capacity, and if money is not the concern then certainly go for sp4.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk

Hi - thanks, but what about the RAM? Isn't 4Gb potentially a little small?
 
I've had SP3 and now SP4. Both with i5/4/128. I've had no issues with both machines with anything I threw at them.

Since you are going to "sell" this machine right after the trip, why not buy a used one from Craigslist? I say CL since that way you can check out the machine before buying. Also, buying used and reselling after your trip will net the least amount of financial loss.

Good luck.
 
Hi - thanks, but what about the RAM? Isn't 4Gb potentially a little small?
Look at the memory needed by your app or apps with Resource Monitor. Done run things you don't have to when doing this. You might find 4GB is enough.
 
Right now I'm in the same boat as the SP3's are very affordable for 8gb/256GB under 700.00 shipped. Whereas the SP4 8gb/256gb is still 1000.00.
 
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