First, I love the Surface Pro but I think I may have a defective one.
Idle temperatures for me are typically around 52c. I can hit 60c just surfing the web with the display brightness on the second lowest setting in a room that is 58 - 62f. If I try to do anything above the basics or have two applications running the device
averages 60 - 65c. Now I'm not talking anything crazy here, some streaming music off Slacker or Digitally Imported plus some web surfing will do it.
I've surfed around the web to try and gather more details and there is not a lot of information about this so it leads me to believe I may have a defective unit or maybe the thermal conduction to the cooling system off the CPU is not quite right. I've
seen people playing DOTA 2, CS:GO and Diablo III on their Surface Pros and there is no mention of a heat issue other than the fans came on a bit. My normal web surfing brings the fans to a very audible level, even with music playing.
If I try to play a basic game from the Windows 8 Store (Pin Ball, Jet Pack Joyride) or something else not super intensive the device can hit 74c and become uncomfortable to hold. The temps can hit this height after just a few minutes of the game i'm not
talking hours and hours. Thanks to the cooling system going full boar the battery life plummets. I know its not the batteries fault but more an issue with cooling.
I love the device and like to use it hard with all that it can do but 74+c is a little ridiculous from just pinball. After a few minutes of 66 and higher temps the system starts to studder and lag with a very noticeable FPS drop. I know the device
wont have amazing cooling and the case itself can work like a giant heat sync but I have tested the device in my office against my desktop under full load against the Surface idle. The Surface is idling 15 to 20c hotter than a 6 core CPU with an AMD 7970 driving
5760 x 1200 , 6 HDD's and some other stuff all under load on air cooling in the same room. I do not expect the Surface to out cool my custom desktop but that PC is inherently hot with high wattage components under full load against a lower wattage i5 doing
nothing but showing me the desktop in the same room with the same air.
I believe my device is defective since it did this out of the box. First bit of usage I did was surf the web for a while and I noticed it was hotter than my cell phone after playing a graphically intense game (for a cell phone) and the fans were audible.
Can anyone else shed any light here or had a similar experience?
