Originally Posted by nkedel

Just a question of whether your applications need it. The single-threaded performance will be a good bit better on the newer machine, but not by nearly enough to make up for the difference between 2 cores/4 threads vs. 4 cores/8 threads for most use.

One other thing about the Surface Book: the memory (like on most thin ultrabook-type laptops and hybrids) is soldered, and can't be upgraded. So make sure you get it with enough memory to last your expected life of the machine.

The SSD is removable/upgradeable in theory, but it's major surgery to get at it and I'd suggest it's pretty much only useful to get at it if the machine is otherwise bricked as a form of data recovery.

May find this interesting: https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Micr...Teardown/51972

Mind, pretty much any ultra-thin portable model will be similar. If you want upgradeability and reparability, you pretty much have to stick to the increasingly uncommon full-size business machines.