Surface Pro 3 i5 8gb 256 or Surface Pro 4 m3 4gb 128 best for Logos
Hi,
As you'll see from another thread, I am thinking of getting a Surface Pro for on the go use with Logos 6. My main machine is a 16gb Macbook Pro, for heavy tasks. I thought I had decided on the SP4 m3 which I like the fact that it is fan less in terms of being silent in church, or bible study group, but have now seen the Surface Pro 3 considerably reduced, so could really do with some advice regarding which machine would be best for Logos, and particularly advice from anyone who uses the i5 SP3 with logos 6, and how often, and loud, the fan runs.
The choices are:
Surface Pro 3 i5 256 8gb ram
Or
Surface Pro 4 m3 128 gb ram
With the current offer the SP3 would cost me only £50 ($30) more than the SP4, for i5 and 8gb ram, as well as double the ssd size.
If I chose the SP3 I would probably get the new keyboard cover 4, as I hear it is much improved.
Would I lose many features by not going for the SP4? Or would the 8gb ram on the SP3 be of more benefit with Logos. If it is relevant, I would probably also run amiduos to run the Logos Android app, for when I want that style of interface.
I really would appreciate any guidance and advice on which way I should jump, in terms of the best experience with Logos.
Blessings
Duncan
Comments
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I have the surface pro 3 model that you mention and it runs things with no problems whatsoever. Even with the old keyboard, I wouldn't use anything but my surface pro 3 at this point.
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Thanks for the reply Mark.
How often do you find the fan runs, when usung logos, and maybe onenote for taking notes and how loud is it?
I used to have a SP1 and it's fan was really loud.
Thanks
Duncan
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My fan rarely kicks on and I have a robust cover on it to prevent damage if it is dropped (which I would imagine increase the temperature). Even when it does kick on, the sound isn't that loud in my opinion.
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It was the lack of fan that attracted me to the SP4 m3, but I'm thinking that if the fan isn't too loud and too often on the SP3 it might be worth my considering the benefits of double the ram on the SP3 and the double the ssd.
Duncan
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Understood. This configuration runs Logos better than any other computer I have ever had. Perhaps someone else can comment if they have the SP4.
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With the SP4, you get ability to push 4K displays and Windows Hello, which makes private yet controlled access to your PC in crowded public settings a breeze.0
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Duncan Campbell said:
I used to have a SP1 and it's fan was really loud.
The SP1 was known to run really, really warm. The SP3 i5 runs much cooler. I don't know about the Surface with the Core M processor, though. Fanless doesn't necessarily mean cool.
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Hi Bill (and others)
I am still using my SP1 and its a hot brick still (my wife wont touch it in church if I bring it).
I bring my thin 8.4 inch Android Galaxy S (not the inferior S2 with the lesser display) now instead.
I wish I could get the Surface Pro 3 or 4 with the I3 but wonder if it would not have power to do things well - like run Logos 6.x Baptist Silver like I have.
Merry Christmas y'all...my wife says I should be happy with what I have. Sigh.
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I use a Surface Pro 3, and it runs Logos 6 beautifully. You will not get any better performance on the Surface Pro 4. You will get a few hours more battery life, if that is important to you. Running Logos 6, Microsoft Word, and a few other apps on the Surface pro 3, I get about 5 + hours of battery life, which is plenty for my purposes.
My Surface Pro 3 has the i7 processor, but the fan is quiet - quieter than any laptop I ever owned. It is just no problem. The i7 does make the tablet noticeably warm with extended heavy use. The fan kicks in, but as I said, it is quiet. The heat is no problem. In fact, this time of year, it is very comfortable to me. Never a problem. I am sure the fan and heat would be much less with an i5 processor.
However, the deal breaker, in my opinion is the 128 GB SSD on the Surface Pro 4. You will soon have that full. I would definitely take the Surface Pro 3.
I suspect you will be delighted with either one, as far as Logos is concerned.
"In all cases, the Church is to be judged by the Scripture, not the Scripture by the Church," John Wesley0 -
Thanks for all the replies.
I suppose the other thing for me to consider is the ram question. Do we think the 8gb ram on the 3 would make things better than the 4gb on the 4 from a Logos 6 perspective?
I've not run logos 6 on windows with 4gb ram before. It was logos 5 on my old sp1. My only pc I have now I have logos 6 has 8gb of ram but no ssd, and my main workhorse is a mac book pro with 16gb ram and an ssd. So I don't really have any direct experience to speak to the importance of the ram issue with logos 6.
I want to get it right as I obviously can't upgrade the ram on the surface pro. Or does having the ssd negate the ram issue somewhat?
I appreciate your thoughts. Once again thank you all so much for the replies, it really is helping me explore this decision. I do want to make a decision soon, as the special offers I have seen are unlikely to last long at this time of year.
Blessings
Duncan
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If only we knew some place online that would sell us a good package deal on Surface Pro 3 or 4 that was under $500.
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Duncan Campbell said:
I suppose the other thing for me to consider is the ram question. Do we think the 8gb ram on the 3 would make things better than the 4gb on the 4 from a Logos 6 perspective?
I want to get it right as I obviously can't upgrade the ram on the surface pro. Or does having the ssd negate the ram issue somewhat?
8GB RAM is pretty important, but as you say you can run Logos 6 on 4GB. Some people run it on 2GB RAM with 8-inch Windows tablets. The more technical among us can chime in, but if you run out of RAM, Windows will use the SSD for a page file. With the computer writing that page file to SSD constantly, it could wear down the SSD over time. At least this is what has traditionally been said.
More than anything, 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD will help future-proof the machine.
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Thanks for all the advice guys, I went out and got the SP3 i5 256 8gb ram model this afternoon.
I do find the fan seems to come on pretty often, with very little being done, e.g. just web browser open, but it is pretty quiet.
One final question. From a Logos 6 perspective, am I ok to do the upgrade to windows 10 from 8.1, or would anyone recommend I should hold off and stick with 8.1.
Blessings
Duncan
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Duncan Campbell said:
Thanks for all the advice guys, I went out and got the SP3 i5 256 8gb ram model this afternoon.
I do find the fan seems to come on pretty often, with very little being done, e.g. just web browser open, but it is pretty quiet.
Good choice. The fans might be coming on because you just got it and the OS is working behind the scenes. Give it a couple of days to settle down and get acclimated.
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Bill Anderson said:Duncan Campbell said:
Thanks for all the advice guys, I went out and got the SP3 i5 256 8gb ram model this afternoon.
I do find the fan seems to come on pretty often, with very little being done, e.g. just web browser open, but it is pretty quiet.
Good choice. The fans might be coming on because you just got it and the OS is working behind the scenes. Give it a couple of days to settle down and get acclimated.
Agreed. I have this exact model. After Windows Update finishes all of it's patches the fan should come on sparingly. It comes on if Logos is indexing, but in normal usage it doesn't come on. I only notice the fan kick in during web browsing if there are videos playing. Surfing webpages doesn't trigger the fan for me outside of that.
I hope you got the new typecover instead of the old one. The Surface Pro 4 typecover is much better.
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Michael, I absolutely did go for the new type cover 4, it is so much better, both keyboard and trackpad wise.
Interestingly, the retailer I bought the Surface from asked if I was sure I wanted the new cover, and not the cover 3, and afterwards said that Microsoft don't like them selling a cover 4 with a SP3, and try to discourage it. I guess they want to clear all the old covers.
The fan has settled down now, after the windows 10 install and all the updates, and now Logos has finally completed its downloading and indexing, the fan seems to come on rarely.
I'm really pleased with it, and thanks again to everyone for all the advice.
blessings
Duncan
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I think you made a wise decision. Couldn't imagine using Logos without my Surface Pro 3. When I have use Logos on something else, I keep touching the screen and wondering why nothing happens.Duncan Campbell said:Thanks for all the advice guys, I went out and got the SP3 i5 256 8gb ram model this afternoon.
I do find the fan seems to come on pretty often, with very little being done, e.g. just web browser open, but it is pretty quiet.
One final question. From a Logos 6 perspective, am I ok to do the upgrade to windows 10 from 8.1, or would anyone recommend I should hold off and stick with 8.1.
Blessings
Duncan
"In all cases, the Church is to be judged by the Scripture, not the Scripture by the Church," John Wesley0 -
I wish I could get a decent used Windows Surface 3 Pro or (gulp) a Surface Pro 4 for under $600...sigh.
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http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00KHR4ZL6/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&condition=used
JoshinRl Here is Surface Pro 3, i5, 256GB for $616.55
L4 BS, L5 RB & Gold, L6 S & R Platinum, L7 Platinum, L8 Baptist Platinum, L9 Baptist Platinum, L10 Baptist Silver
2021 MacBook Pro M1 Pro 14" 16GB 512GB SSD, running MacOS Monterey iPad Mini 6, iPhone 11.0 -
Duncan - its been about a month since this post. are you still happy with your SP3 with the 8gb ram and 256 hd? I have a mac book pro 2009 and like the idea of a combo laptop and tablet using the pen and touch screen. Like you it seems it might be best to use some of the money for a more robust SP3 rather than the newer SP4. Have you noticed any stylist issues on the 3 VS 4? Or read anything that caused you to rethink 3 vs 4?
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Hi Rodney,
In terms of Logos use, I found the SP3 really good. With the SSD it ran fast enough, and I was able to have Logos open along with Accordance, Onenote, Bible Analyser, Word and a web browser, using the virtual desktop feature of Windows 10, without noticing any real slow down, that said, I wasn't searching with all the bible software at the same time, but they were open at the same time, and I switched between them easily.I think the 8gb ram probably helped in this regard.
I only really noticed the fan on the Surface Pro kicking in during original setup, and while Logos was indexing, which is an area that I had originally been concerned about, before I made my purchase, but it seemed to rarely come on, and was fairly quiet.
Having said that, due to 2 different hardware faults my Surface Pro 3 had to be exchanged twice, and in the end I paid extra for the i5 256 8gb Surface Pro 4, which I received only yesterday. It was more than I had originally planned on spending, and was happy with how Logos ran on the 3, but took the leap because I was concerned about the hardware faults I had experienced, and the SP3 models were becoming harder to get, so that is why I changed to the SP4.
The first fault I experienced was, about 2 weeks after purchase, when my SP3 displayed the battery not present message and would not charge or run from battery. This was immediately exchanged for another SP3. Unfortunately, although the replacement charged fine, and did not display this message, it regularly displayed the incorrect time, and it turned out that the clock stopped whenever the Surface was shut down. Again, this was deemed to be a hardware fault, and another exchange offered.
It was at this point that I decided to pay the extra and go for the i5 256 8gn SP4. I was concerned that the small number of this model of SP3 still available in the UK could be a faulty batch, given the issues I had had with 2 models.
I obviously haven't had much time to use Logos on the SP4 yet, having only received it yesterday, but it did seem as if the initial indexing of Logos was a little quicker on the SP4. Once I have had time to use Logos more on the SP4, I'm quite happy to post again about my experiences.
I hope this is of some help.
Blessings
Duncan
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Keep us posted on your experience with the SP4, please. We appreciate the comments and insights.
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I am also blessed with the i5 256 8GB Surface Pro 4 (for a couple of weeks now) and am really amazed. IMHO it is ideal device for running Logos (if only Logos would be more touch friendly) but it works well with the pen. I am even playing with the thought to get the special hub for all the connections and charging at my desk and use it as the only machine with the extra monitor etc. After using iPad and Lenovo Yoga 10" so far as my preaching/reading tool, I am so happy with real smooth experience and superb monitor quality on Surface Pro 4. Also, just to add: the typing on the cover-keyboard is comparable with the best of notebooks I tried and used.
Bohuslav
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