I am planning on getting a Surface Pro 4, and I was wondering if anyone sees a possible limitation of having 4GB of RAM vs 8GB when running SAS, will SAS be able to run effectively on a machine with 4GB of RAM or is 8GB recommended?
Please note my comment above regarding Windows 10 as this will be the operating system you will get with a new Surface Pro 4.
Of course SAS 9.4 will work OK on 4GB, but having extra for other applications and for future upgrades is worthwhile in my opinion.
I would definitely recommend at least 8GB. This means you can run multiple apps at the same time without running out of memory.
Note SAS does not yet officially support Windows 10, although it is planned shortly.
@Solo2392 wrote:
I am planning on getting a Surface Pro 4, and I was wondering if anyone sees a possible limitation of having 4GB of RAM vs 8GB when running SAS, will SAS be able to run effectively on a machine with 4GB of RAM or is 8GB recommended?
Define "effectively".
Sure the software will run with 4GB of RAM, is that what you mean by "effectively"
I agree with the other user who recommended 8GB, most modern software runs better at 8GB.
I plan on using it with SAS 9.4, and in terms of data sets, I'm only going to be doing some basic SAS programming to prepare for the Base certification. Will 4GB of RAM be enough for this, it's a little hard to justify the extra $300 MS is charging for the extra RAM.
Please note my comment above regarding Windows 10 as this will be the operating system you will get with a new Surface Pro 4.
Of course SAS 9.4 will work OK on 4GB, but having extra for other applications and for future upgrades is worthwhile in my opinion.
Thanks, I think I'll go with i5/128gb/4gb RAM Pro 4, It's going to be a secondary machine anyways to do base SAS and for notetaking/media consumption. I already have a Macbook Pro 13 Retina as my primary machine, but it doesn't have enough space to dual boot and install SAS, and I feel like having a dedicated Windows machine would be nice, and the surface line intrigues me.
How did it work out? Are you happy with the Surface Pro 4 for your usage of SAS? I am in the same boat. I currently have the MacBook Pro Retina. I am debating the dual boot option (with all of its issues) vs. buying a Surface Pro 4 (or a Surface Book).
It's been a while but I ended up returning the Surface Pro 4 and getting a Dell XPS 13 instead. My main reasons were that the quality of the Surface wasn't up to my expectations, the fans would go full blast even on light tasks, battery life wasn't great, and the hybrid was awkward to use, the keyboard and kickstand combo don't make it great to use on a lap.
I couldn't really make it as a laptop replacement. I'm really happy with the Dell XPS 13 though, ended up costing around $200 more, but it also had double the RAM and Storage. It may not be a hybrid, but it's small enough to be very portable. I also don't feel that the touchscreen experience is fully utilized in WIndows 10. It's nice to have but I find myself using it more like a traditional laptop. I would say the XPS 13 is a safe option.
My use case was similar, I just installed SAS to use for programming practice in prepration for the base exam. If you're considering the new machine route, XPS 13 is a safe choice, but any ultrabook with an i5/i7 with 8GB of RAM and an SSD of 128GB or greater will be fine. It's up to you on what features you would like the aestheics of the laptop, and also the price range.
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