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Sp3 i5 8gb vs Sp4 i5 4gb

Sk8brd

New Member
Hi!

I'm looking to buy a surface but I don't know which one to choose.. the hard drive is not important... and those one are the same price sp3 i5 8gb vs sp4 i5 4gb

I'm not doing any photoshop or thing like that.. I don't think I will play game on it.. (I have an xbox one for that!! :) )

It mainly for taking note at school and working.. I already buy a docking station to have 2 screen.. Maybe I will sell my desktop computer to keep only one computer (the surface)

What do you think? Sp4 with 4gb is enough? I plan to keep the surface a couple of years..

Thank you!
 

jnjroach

Administrator
Staff member
Hi!

I'm looking to buy a surface but I don't know which one to choose.. the hard drive is not important... and those one are the same price sp3 i5 8gb vs sp4 i5 4gb

I'm not doing any photoshop or thing like that.. I don't think I will play game on it.. (I have an xbox one for that!! :) )

It mainly for taking note at school and working.. I already buy a docking station to have 2 screen.. Maybe I will sell my desktop computer to keep only one computer (the surface)

What do you think? Sp4 with 4gb is enough? I plan to keep the surface a couple of years..

Thank you!
4GB should be fine for most tasks....and the CPU on the SP4 is much better than the SP3 and it looks like MS and Intel have finally fixed the driver issues. Driving to external monitors depending on resolution could be problematic with 4GB or RAM. If you have splurge for the 8GB SP4 I think you would be quite happy.
 

hughlle

Super Moderator
Staff member
Nothing wrong with 4gb for that use case. I had 4gb for the sp3, and 4gb for the sp4, an never felt a need for more. I also use it for playing games etc and it is just fine. I'd go sp4 :)
 
OP
S

Sk8brd

New Member
4GB should be fine for most tasks....and the CPU on the SP4 is much better than the SP3 and it looks like MS and Intel have finally fixed the driver issues. Driving to external monitors depending on resolution could be problematic with 4GB or RAM. If you have splurge for the 8GB SP4 I think you would be quite happy.

I'll not drinving 4k display.. I'm an accountant and I don't need to see in 4k.. the surface is more for job..

For the price, I found
Sp3 i5 8gb used for 750$ CAD,
Sp4 i5 4gb used for 900$ CAD, (1 500$ new)
Sp4 i5 8gb used is 1 250$ CAD (1 950$ new)
with keyboard..

I was ready to put an extra 150$, but I'm not sure if I want to put an extra 500$.. lol

What's the problem with the Sp3?
 
OP
S

Sk8brd

New Member
Nothing wrong with 4gb for that use case. I had 4gb for the sp3, and 4gb for the sp4, an never felt a need for more. I also use it for playing games etc and it is just fine. I'd go sp4 :)
Do you think I'll be able to keep it more than 2-3 years?
 

hughlle

Super Moderator
Staff member
Do you think I'll be able to keep it more than 2-3 years?

Unless your usage changes, then why not? It's not just going to up and die after 12 months (one would hope).

I've given my partner my SP3 i bought at launch, and it still works just great and I don't see what will change in the next 5 years that would cause it to be insufficient. These are not smartphones, there is no actual requirement to upgrade so long as the machine still works. People are still using core2duo computers for this kind of usage case without a problem. In fact for this usage case, the SP4 is completely overkill, docking station aside, the S3 is more than sufficient for school work (I use mine here and there without an issue, even if it does take forever to load applications). You're really just paying for the form factor.
 

jnjroach

Administrator
Staff member
The SP3 will be fine, the SP4 SoC is two generations newer than the SP3 (Haswell (4th Gen) vs. SkyLake (6th Gen))
 
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