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E: Never mind.
Digital Jesus fucked around with this message at 13:19 on Jun 14, 2015 |
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Jun 14, 2015 09:48
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Does anyone have experience purchasing used SP2s off of Ebay? The Gazelle.com store has some SP2s w/ typecovers going for $450-$600 depending on model, and that's a steal. If I were to get one and it ends up being poo poo in months, what recourse do I have with Microsoft for repairs and such?
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Jun 16, 2015 06:43
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Psyker posted:Does anyone have experience purchasing used SP2s off of Ebay? The Gazelle.com store has some SP2s w/ typecovers going for $450-$600 depending on model, and that's a steal. If I were to get one and it ends up being poo poo in months, what recourse do I have with Microsoft for repairs and such? If it has any warranty left you're fine. If not then you used to be able to pay a flat fee for out of warranty repair/exchange.
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Jun 16, 2015 14:00
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Well seeing as the SP3s are going for ~$650, I'd choose one of those.
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Jun 16, 2015 21:28
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Fatal posted:Well seeing as the SP3s are going for ~$650, I'd choose one of those. I would, but my concerns are: 1), 8gb RAM is super important nowadays and they only have 128gb/4gb models available and... 2), the SP2 has much better cooling than the SP3 for if/when I feel like doing light gaming between classes. I really feel like I'm going to sit and wait to see if we get an SP4 by the end of summer, or a killer 4th of July sale somewhere.
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Jun 16, 2015 23:14
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Psyker posted:I would, but my concerns are: As someone who owned (and still owns the SP3, and an S3) both, and used both on the road a lot, in my opinion you are thinking about this the wrong way, or a little too much. The SP3 is flat out better in every way. I still have no idea what the whole "cooling" fuss is about - I understand the technical details behind the differences in the CPUs, I'm just saying you aren't going to notice it. What you are going to notice is the SP2 is heavier, thicker, has a slightly smaller screen that while nice isn't as nice as the SP3's, and while 16x9 sounds great for watching movies the SP3 aspect ratio is much better for everything else...and it's no slouch at watching movies, either. Also the adjustable kickstand is much better and the Type Cover 3 is miles ahead of the Type Cover 2 (technically I think you can actually use a Type Cover 3 with an SP2 but it won't fit right). The SP3 is a better device. Don't waste money on an SP2 unless the price difference is more than half for the same specs. Also, 4gb will be fine for these things, it's not a laptop replacement, you won't be doing much "light gaming" on either of them no matter what Youtube tells you, they really aren't very good for PC titles and the ones they are good for either one will do fine with, 8gb or 4gb. I'm not saying 8gb isn't important for Windows these days, just that it isn't as important for a Surface, because if you are trying to use one as an all-in-one PC you aren't going to be happy even if you do have 8gb. Really what you should get is an S3 unless you can get a good deal on a used SP3, since the S3 is better than the Pro line for what the Surface does best - super-portable Windows - and carry it with a decent laptop when you really need the extra juice. In other words, treat it like most people treat an iPad + laptop, and when you don't feel like carting your laptop around, you don't have to. If you really need the extra juice all the time then just get a decent, light ultrabook. If you really like gaming get one of those that has discreet graphics, they've come a long way even in the last year.
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Jun 17, 2015 01:48
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Just got a Dell Venue 11 pro off of Groupon for cheap. So far I am very happy with it.
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Jun 17, 2015 03:12
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8GB isn't super important or even all that beneficial in most cases. Gaming is always going to suck, RAM won't change that. Everything else I'd bet you couldn't tell the difference between a 4 and 8 GB system.
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Jun 17, 2015 05:06
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An S3 is winging its way over to me; I got to try one out in store and it's a gorgeous piece of kit. I was debating paying up for a Pro, but in all honesty I don't need the power. The screen on the S3 is impossibly nice, and my gaming habits broadly consist of Team Fortress 2 and 2D indie garbage, so I'm probably okay there.
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Jun 19, 2015 09:06
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People unfairly throw poo poo at Intel's mobile and lower end processors. The S3 won't be a data center blade anytime soon, but it definitely throws some heavy punches.
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Jun 19, 2015 13:32
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Psyker posted:I would, but my concerns are: I've got the SP3 with 4 gb, and memory hasn't been an issue, because I don't use it like I would a desktop. I'm not doing any heavy gaming; mostly I'm working on code, watching a video or reading articles
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Jun 19, 2015 13:54
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Protocol7 posted:People unfairly throw poo poo at Intel's mobile and lower end processors. The S3 won't be a data center blade anytime soon, but it definitely throws some heavy punches. The newer Atoms are excellent; they'll struggle to do anything heavy duty in a timely manner, but even on my cheapo Bay Trail, Windows stays consistently smooth and responsive. I even tried the Tomb Raider reboot for shits and giggles, and while it chugged along at 5 frames per second, the controls stayed responsive throughout and it had no problem starting or quitting. The whole system remained perfectly stable, and that's what counts. Doctor_Fruitbat fucked around with this message at 14:08 on Jun 19, 2015 |
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Jun 19, 2015 14:02
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I run in to this all the time in software development, I call it the submarine problem. Like, say the software is a submarine, and this particular sub is designed to cruise around at 100 feet (let's call it a recreational sub, roll with the metaphor), and a request comes in that a customer likes the sub a lot, and 100 feet depth is fine, but every once and a while they want to take it down to 2,000 feet....so please add that to the product. It's a different submarine that does that, and a portable device that plays modern Windows desktop games well is a different kind of device. You're gonna sacrifice something to carry around that extra power for the times when you need it - or not. Talk about "light gaming" in the context of these Windows tablets is the new "will it run Crysis" for 2014-15 
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Jun 20, 2015 03:25
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Zarfol posted:Pulled this from WindowsCentral - I had this same problem but used a different method - I gave that a shot a long with a few other fixes from that same support article. Nothing seems to work... Guess I'll just have to wait. Overall, im happy with my yoga 2. It plays a decent number of games just fine. And I'm loving the fact that Hearthstone was optimized for touch screens. Very smooth experience. Best part is the battery life though. Based on Hearthstone eating 17% or so per hour of playtime, im really happy. Hearthstone tears my phone and Android tablets batteries apart though. The note 3 uses about 35% per hour and the tablet about 25%. grimcreaper fucked around with this message at 03:38 on Jun 20, 2015 |
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Jun 20, 2015 03:31
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Ixian posted:Talk about "light gaming" in the context of these Windows tablets is the new "will it run Crysis" for 2014-15 I don't know. My stupid 13" Lenovo is a champ if you lower the resolution/settings way down and keep it plugged in. I've played Team Fortress 2 and Skyrim for a couple of hours each and it doesn't get worrying hot like my old 8 and 10 inch tablets with 2 GB of ram did.
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Jun 20, 2015 14:38
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Call Me Charlie posted:I don't know. My stupid 13" Lenovo is a champ if you lower the resolution/settings way down and keep it plugged in. I've played Team Fortress 2 and Skyrim for a couple of hours each and it doesn't get worrying hot like my old 8 and 10 inch tablets with 2 GB of ram did. To be clear, I use mine for gaming (...light, even) myself. I just think that gaming - Windows desktop PC style gaming (for lack of a better description) is more of a "great if it works, but a bonus" thing and not the driving criteria behind what these devices can do. If that is what someone is looking for they are going to probably end up disappointed. The problem is "light gaming" is one of the most eye of the beholder terms there is. On one end you have Peggle and on the other you have Witcher 3. Everyone (looking in this thread) understands those extremes but the middle is wide open. So it's a really hard question to answer when it comes up; not everyone is going to be happy playing TF2 at low resolution, etc. There are a lot of really decent, thin and light Ultrabooks now that have integrated graphics that, while hardly gaming powerhouses, will do a much better job than any Windows tablet or hybrid. All I'm saying is don't rule those out if that kind of gaming is your thing.
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Jun 20, 2015 16:23
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Well, I just bought a Surface 3. And due to my own stupidity, I can attest to it's durability. The part of my desk it broke off when I dropped it is testament to that. It's loving awesome though! Don't mind the tiny 10" display as much as I thought I would.
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Jun 20, 2015 21:37
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I have a top-tier 15" Ultrabook and I still feel like I would get a lot of use out of a Surface 3 or 4 to replace my 8" mini-tablet. It's either that or an iPad mini 2 and if I'm going to spend that kind of money I might as well get pen support and the desktop.
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Jun 21, 2015 18:02
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I'm seriously considering either a Surface 3 or a Surface Pro 3 right now. I want to use it to read lectures, ebooks for my university studies, to be able to take notes in class and in general for learning poo poo. From trailers, and from what I've seen people draw with the pen, it seems pretty good. Is it good enough for writing, or is it a gimmick in the end? I would be awesome if I could do all my note taking straight on the lecture PDF files, instead of having to print them out (expensive, did a fast calculation: At least $300 to print out all of last terms lectures, probably more ). A huge bonus would be that I don't have to retype everything in order to have it digitally. I like having a tablet to read litterature on since I can lie down comfortably and still highlight (and remove them later easily), annotate, copy pictures directly from the book to flashcards and so on. I kind of want to spend less time switching between stuff I use, and have most of it in the same place, synced to my main computer. I don't need the surface to replace a computer or laptop. The question is, is the pen good enough, and does the Surface (Pro) 3 sound like something I'd make good use of?
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Jun 22, 2015 16:13
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MrOnBicycle posted:I'm seriously considering either a Surface 3 or a Surface Pro 3 right now. I want to use it to read lectures, ebooks for my university studies, to be able to take notes in class and in general for learning poo poo. I found the pen pretty good, and the text recognition was surprisingly accurate. OneNote seems to have pretty decent PDF annotation if you import them, you might also want to check out Drawboard. I think OneNote keeps text recognition in itself, Drawboard might do it when saving pdfs. I could check them when I get home.
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Jun 22, 2015 16:39
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MrOnBicycle posted:I'm seriously considering either a Surface 3 or a Surface Pro 3 right now. I want to use it to read lectures, ebooks for my university studies, to be able to take notes in class and in general for learning poo poo. I haven't been able to use a surface for an extended period yet, but from my experience with Thinkpad tablets and this crappy Samsung thing I had right when Windows 8 came out, active pens are great for note taking. IMO the Surface would be great for the uses you mentioned.
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Jun 22, 2015 18:09
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MrOnBicycle posted:I'm seriously considering either a Surface 3 or a Surface Pro 3 right now. I want to use it to read lectures, ebooks for my university studies, to be able to take notes in class and in general for learning poo poo. I just threw a PDF into onenote 17.4 on Windows10 Preview on my Surface Pro 3, and I could write all over it. It was quite nice. I don't know how well it'll handle extremely large PDFSs, but a 5 page document worked great.
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Jun 22, 2015 18:24
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I used Drawboard today to annotate some 60-page pdfs, for notes in my class. Worked great. Surface 3's screen seems a little small for writing, but the pen really works great. I adjusted my sensitivity to better match what I'm used to (I usually sketch with a set of graphite pencils.)
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Jun 22, 2015 19:48
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Okay, first thoughts after a few hours with the Surface 3 (128Gb/4Gb version): - The build quality is fantastic; I especially like the type cover, which fixes into place with a ridiculously strong magnet that slams into position nicely. - Just the right size and weight; I wouldn't describe it as light per say, but it's still pleasant to hold and only really beaten out in lightness by cheapo plastic tablets. - Performance is as nimble as I'd expect from a current Atom; 2D games are smooth, TF2 runs at full 1920 x 1280 on mixed settings, but at a solid 30fps. Manga Studio seems to run pretty well too. The desktop is as smooth as butter. So basically, if you want a really nice tablet for desktop stuff or taking notes in a lecture, it's pretty much perfect.
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Jun 22, 2015 20:43
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I appreciate the info! I briefly used one in a shop earlier, though no pen available to test due to people stealing them... I loved how it looked and felt though. Seems really solid, and I for one like sharper corners. The next question is what configuration to get. i7 is out of the question so the choice is really between the i3 64GB (sound a bit small storage wise since after Win8 is installed there is about 38GB left), or the i5 128GB. More than that is pointless since I have a main computer with tons of storage, and there is microSD card slot.
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Jun 22, 2015 21:21
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You can't go wrong with the $850 Surface Pro 3 i5 128GB refurb bundle with the type cover included on Amazon, sold by Microsoft. It comes with a full one year warranty and the refurbs are Apple quality, IE good as new and you'd never know otherwise if it weren't for a tiny "refurbished" sticker on the packaging (it even comes with the original packaging, unlike Apple refurbs). I'm typing this on my refurb right now and I absolutely love it. Fairly sure it's an America-only deal though.
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Jun 22, 2015 22:45
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sethsez posted:You can't go wrong with the $850 Surface Pro 3 i5 128GB refurb bundle with the type cover included on Amazon, sold by Microsoft. It comes with a full one year warranty and the refurbs are Apple quality, IE good as new and you'd never know otherwise if it weren't for a tiny "refurbished" sticker on the packaging (it even comes with the original packaging, unlike Apple refurbs). I'm typing this on my refurb right now and I absolutely love it. As a lifelong computer nerd and IT professional, I endorse everything about this post. The i5+128GB configuration will stand up longer, refurbished hardware is great, and if it isn't you've got a year to figure it out. Decent price, too. Thanks for that!
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Jun 23, 2015 08:16
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Those deals are amazing, it's a shame I'm not in the US. I'm looking on UK eBay/Amazon though. I've got nothing against buying a second hand one in good condition, especially if it has all the expensive accessories. Going to go for an i5 128GB. MrOnBicycle fucked around with this message at 12:18 on Jun 23, 2015 |
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Jun 23, 2015 10:52
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Ok, so I've had my Surface 3 4/128 for a few days now, and I'd like to give some initial thoughts after using it for personal stuff and school stuff. For some reference of what my use case would be, I am a full time developer, and a full time student. We are getting laptops at work so I wanted to ditch my 5 pound ThinkPad T420, since they'll live in a bag together. First off; the device feels and looks great, but that's always been one of the best parts about the Surface line. I have not held a Pro, but the regular 3 is pretty drat light. Not iPad light, for sure, and my frame of reference is my girlfriend's iPad 2, which is not the lightest of the crowd. But even then, I've hosed around with this thing on the couch and it barely made my arm kind of tired after like 15 minutes. The Type Cover feels nice; I did try out the Pro type cover vs the regular Surface type cover in store just to see if I'd really like the extra size difference, and they're pretty similar, I think. The Surface 3 has some slightly function keys on the keyboard that control brightness for the keys and screen, compared to the Pro. Though the S3 does have a Fn toggle so if I am in Visual Studio and need to F5, it's easy to do. Trackpad's comically tiny, though, but even with normal use it doesn't really bother me, I just notice that there's a lot of "scroll, lift finger and scroll again". Due to how late the Surface 3 came around I think they learned a few things and tried them in the Surface 3. Keys are a bit mushy, but I can type easily and it's quiet. Now the thing I was most concerned with was the size. The 14 inch display of my ThinkPad is about a perfect working size, but it was 1366x768 and that's loving terrible. The display on the Surface 3 is an impressive 1920x1280 and it's just... great. I don't care that it's 10.8" since it's still so much roomier. And tablet usage looks great thanks to the high DPI. My iPhone 6 screen looks very similar in clarity to the Surface 3, if that helps anyone draw a comparison. Performance is an important part of any Windows laptop, and I'll echo everyone's complaints about the storage being sort of slow. Only noticeable when I was doing heavy I/O, like installing WoW (which actually runs at a stable 30FPS with low settings, but it takes up 30 gigs, so it's probably not going to stay). The Atom doesn't like Firefox that much, but I've yet to have an issue with Metro IE. The pen never lags. Oh, yeah, and the pen rules. Took notes with it in class yesterday, went well. Here's an example of all of 5 seconds of writing in OneNote:  The screen, though, is wonderful. I like the aspect ratio. The Surface 3 is still small, but thanks to the screen, it doesn't feel that way. Visual Studio is not cramped. Photoshop is not cramped. And for light coding and touch ups, which is all I need, it's perfect. If I need more power, I have a dedicated server running Server 2012 I can remote desktop into or otherwise leverage. Or my desktop. I'm not a heavy road warrior. My biggest complaint is that when using the pen, if you press hard it sometimes makes the screen look funny (like if you poke a non-touchscreen, that sort of distortion.) Like I said a few posts ago, I just upped my pen sensitivity anyway. It's still plenty variable, just requires less pressure overall to use. It also cost me $700 for the whole package thanks to some Best Buy coupons, and that's quite a lot for a tablet, but if you've got the cash there are really no competitors.
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Jun 23, 2015 13:48
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Would putting wow on an SD card work?
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Jun 23, 2015 14:26
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xthetenth posted:Would putting wow on an SD card work? Yeah, but load times would suffer quite noticeably.
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Jun 23, 2015 14:37
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I don't have a fast SD card, it's a pretty lovely SanDisk 64GB. Contemplating coughing up for one of those Lexar 128GBs. I do have a few Steam games installed on it, though, and they're pretty happy. Light indie games, though.
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Jun 23, 2015 14:52
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Just FYI, I've gone through two Surface Pro 3's, because they (i5 128GB) seem to be killing any SD card I put in it that is 64GB or higher. I've had a 32GB one in there for awhile and it works, but a Sandisk SDXC 64GB card (red/grey) and a Lexar 128GB (black/blue) card have both died. I got replacements on the cards from Amazon, and got a total replacement SP3 from the Microsoft store before my deployment (with new pen, even!), and a month in the new surface killed the 64GB card, and a week later the 128GB card was dead, too. No case or anything, and the heaviest "gaming" I do on it is playing FTL. I had my Steam library on the cards, but that caused them to die only more quickly (from what I can gather). Both cards, and by that, I mean all four cards total, ended up unformattable with any tool I could find in Windows or Linux, both with the built-in reader, and on separate machines with multiple (Kingston, Anker) readers. I've moved my Steam library off of the card, but even now it takes a few seconds for the SP3 to "see" the contents of the 32GB card. There's something about it sitting idle for awhile that causes it to have to refresh the contents, and the time to do so seems to be lengthening.
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Jun 23, 2015 15:22
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Yeah, I keep seeing that the 128GB cards fail a shitton (although SD cards seem more prone to failure than any other portable media I see) and the 128GBs have generally worse write performance. The Lexar 633x has in best conditions 95Mb/s read speeds, but tops out at mid-20's for write. Just wish the Surface 3's came with a 256GB configuration. I still have plenty of space, but I recall that Windows likes to eat up free space at times.
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Jun 23, 2015 15:27
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Protocol7 posted:Just wish the Surface 3's came with a 256GB configuration. I still have plenty of space, but I recall that Windows likes to eat up free space at times.
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Jun 23, 2015 16:23
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What's the best solution for moving CD rips between by PC and a windows tablet? I picked up the super cheap HP tablet the other day. With my phone and my old android tablet i just used them as Media Devices but networking this thing isn't quite as easy.
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Jun 25, 2015 22:15
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Nevvy Z posted:What's the best solution for moving CD rips between by PC and a windows tablet? I picked up the super cheap HP tablet the other day. With my phone and my old android tablet i just used them as Media Devices but networking this thing isn't quite as easy. a lot of tablets that charge via micro USB support hooking into a regular PC with that same cable and being treated as an external drive.
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Jun 26, 2015 01:15
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I caved and bought an SP3 and drat I'm impressed. It was loud at first and I was a bit worried, but after all the updates and so on it's settled down and is quiet (except when I watched 4k video on youtube). It's a drat impressive machine. It's strangely reassuring to be able to just go into normal desktop mode and know that you have a PC equivalent that you can do anything that you could on your main computer. I really didn't think I'd like the type cover 3 as much as I do neither. I'm still getting used to it, but so far It's great. The only downside so far is the App store. Like someone said earlier in this thread or in some other thread relating to microsoft; if they'd just get on par with Apple or Google they'd dominate. Oh and don't get the 64GB version. I've pretty much only synced a part of my google drive and installed some stuff and it's at 83GB. That is, unless you know you won't be keeping anything on it. The pen is awesome, I'm looking forward to using it for school.
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Jun 27, 2015 09:52
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OneDrive forever; I've moved the location of my personal folders on both my desktop and Surface to the OneDrive folder and it all syncs up beautifully without me needing to download anything until I use it. Plus it's cheap as hell.
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Jun 27, 2015 10:17
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Doctor_Fruitbat posted:OneDrive forever; I've moved the location of my personal folders on both my desktop and Surface to the OneDrive folder and it all syncs up beautifully without me needing to download anything until I use it. Plus it's cheap as hell. My biggest issue is the DRM used on eBooks. BookVisor is a great EPUB reader, but Google Play recently changed their DRM scheme, and Chrome has terrible touch support. Edit: Fixed typo. Ynglaur fucked around with this message at 12:08 on Jun 27, 2015 |
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Jun 27, 2015 11:14
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