Thank you @AndersVinberg – much obliged. If you could upload the Surface 3 with small covers as well, my life would be pretty much complete. 
Yeah, me too. The damn things won’t upload…
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Suggest a Dropbox link instead…sorry should have said a OneDrive link
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Ok, let’s see if this works.
Surface 3 with small covers:
https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=909F29EE70AA6219!52064&authkey=!ABOER6PodaPyqxs&v=3&ithint=photo%2Cpng
Surface 3 Pro with small covers:
https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=909F29EE70AA6219!52071&authkey=!AGsts6hc15x_llE&ithint=folder%2C
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Works like a charm. Most helpful – thank you, sir!
Do you prefer the Surface Pro 3 or the Surface 3 for Roon or no preference?
No major preference. The Pro has a wider screen, one more column of covers visible (see screenshots). Higher resolution but the Surface is fine.
The more important issue: my machines had email accounts on them (both personal and corporate) that imposed password requirements on the machines. Very annoying: after 15 minutes, pausing the music required entering a password to wake the machine up. So I removed all sensitive data and accounts from the Surface and use that for Roon, now it works as a control panel for music.
So of course I chose the Surface for this, and left the corporate email accounts on the Pro. And using the Surface instead of the Pro does not feel like suffering.
(And yes, I have more computers around the house than is normal, I’m in the business.)
It all depends on your usage model.
The Pro has more memory. Used as a Roon control alone the Surface works ok, but if you want to simultaneously want to work on a large budget in a spreadsheet or edit a large PowerPoint, the switch between work and Roon may be slower with the Surface.
So as usual, if you plan ambitious use, spend all you can spend on hardware.
Or get the work machine you need, and then buy a Surface as a dedicated Roon control.
I don’t want to sound cavalier about money. But we should recognize that compared to high end audio prices, computer gear is very cheap. For the cost of a Meridian Sooloos system, you can scatter Surfaces all over the furniture in every room in the house. It’s all about mass production vs. bespoke.
I really appreciate. I agree about cost vs performance vs what we spend on audio gear. I played with both the other day liked both. I am still waiting for the LTE version of Surface 3 to be released and now there are rumors of a “Pro 4” that will have LTE to be announced or released with the release of Windows 10
I hear you about having to enter a password everytime you pick up the Surface and/or Pro. Right now I am using my sons computer which is a convertible XPS 12 and it is a pain. One thing I am very impressed with is the instantaneous reconnect to the network with Roon compared to Jremote on my Apple IPad/iPhone and JRiver.
An alternative way around the Corporate Password requirement is to set up a different Account on the machine
This Account could be set up to not have any email accounts or sensitive data within it…as well as having different Screen and Sleep timeouts to your “normal use” account…i.e. Timeouts more suitable to typical Roon usage
Call the account e.g. ‘Roon’…and you could even have it so that there is no password on THAT account…while other Accounts are fully password protected etc.
@Ronnie Clever idea but it doesn’t work. The security policy (at least mine) applies to the whole machine. Because while the accounts are separate, the disk is not, so you might save a sensitive attachment and an attacker using a non-password account could find it.
It’s a decision of Corporate IT and what levels they insist on
Working within the EXTREMELY sensitive Pharma industry, who obviously do not wish for “information” to be leaked, I can tell you what I’ve outlined above is possible with WIndows and OSX machines
OSX is quicker to switch between Accounts, due to the way that it handles memory, apps and accounts etc…but it’s certainly possible within Windows 8.1 as well…but only if your Corporate IT agree to expand the security policy to Accounts rather than the whole machine
File and Folder Encryption tools also play an integral role in ensuring that Policies can be set at the Account level rather than the Machine level
In any case, my post was meant as a pointer for Priaptor and others who may not have as high a Corporate security policy set on their machines…it may not work for some people, but equally it may be viable for many people out there, who want to protect their own Account info…but still allow easy access to themselves and other while using Roon or similar apps…where running without a Password every 15 minutes is very desirable
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@Ronnie Sure it depends on the corporate security policy. Our corporate policies did not allow it, I tried it. And since I work in computer security, I grumble but applaud it.
I’m just happy that the hardware cost is now low enough to allow a practical solution. We do not have to treat computers as long-lived multi-purpose assets anymore, we can have many of them.
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If I have Roon core installed on a headless server, will a Windows Tablet with an Atom Processor work as a control point? In other words, does it have the OPEN GL support needed to run/display the Roon interface if I want to install Roon on the tablet as a remote?
Our corporate policy is that no company equipment can be put to personal use nor could personal equipment be used for company business. Meant having to carry 2 cell phones for a long time.
Sure some companies have this policy. But in my experience (I work with systems management and security solutions) most companies have relaxed such policies. Partly because it is difficult to resist demographic trends, young staffers don’t think that way. Partly also because even with such a policy, IT has to be concerned about security leaks on the corporate devices.
But it does simplify things. Above I recommended such a split and now have it at home because dual use put a password on my music player.
I’m running Roon on the Acer Aspire 10 tablet/laptop. I picked one up last week for $159. It runs a full version of Windows 8.1 and it’s running Roon fine. It uses an Atom Processor and has 2 GB of RAM.
With Priaptor reminding me to look at Surfaces, and with the Microsoft store offering a Surface 3 Pro 128GB at $599 i started to get interested, vs a new ipad (mine are all too old to do OpenGl 3.0). I also see a Surface 3 at $399. Hmmm… Question…for a remote would the $199 “ASUS Transformer Book Flip TP200SA-UHBF Signature Edition 2 in 1 PC” work? It has a couple OpenGL benchmarks (Cinebench R11.5OpenGL 64 bit @9.52fps and R15 64 bit @ 12.82fps…WHATEVER THAT MEANS 
)
I guess the $64 question is: how does one check out a touchscreen tablet/flip and understand if it does OpenGl 3.0? The intended use of such device is basically 100% Roon remote (when Roon is active). Thanks
Ted
Good find Ted. It seems to be suitable. I hope someone from Roon will answer. For that price I might buy one just for Roon.
Here’s the link (the tech specs can be found there) if anyone can answer your question.