Upgrade from Parallels 4 to 5?

[MacBandit]

I'm looking for any and all feedback from people that upgraded from Parallels 4 to Parallels 5. Unlike the upgrade from 3 to 4 there have been no reviews comparing the two and informing users on what reasons one might want to upgrade. I'm especially interested in users that are still using XP but will take any and all feedback. Also with your feedback could you please note what machine you are running it on including CPU speed and Memory installed?

Thank you before the fact and hopefully this thread will turn up a lot of good information for everyone.

[steve knight]

I have only used 7 with parallels. but the speed difference between the two was fair. well mostly in boot time. that improved 2 or 3 times as fast.
some of my problems went away too.

[MacRumorUser]

I think there is a good difference in performance and extra functions between 4 & 5, and the $39 upgrade price is worthwhile for those differences.

[MacBandit]

I think there is a good difference in performance and extra functions between 4 & 5, and the $39 upgrade price is worthwhile for those differences.

Well there might be but Parallels doesn't state there is. When they made the upgrade from 3 to 4 Parallels showed all kinds of side by sides and made a lot of claims about how much faster it was over vers. 3. With the upgrade to 5 they just say it's faster with Windows 7 and optimized for specific systems. They don't make a blind claim about it being faster on all systems. So I'm hesitant until I see evidence from users. You would think if there was something substantial besides support for Windows 7 Parallels would be praising it from morning to night but they aren't.

[bighorse]

I'm wondering the same thing. I'm running XP on Parallels 4, mainly to run Quickbooks, TurboCAD, and Paint Shop Pro. It meets my needs with no problems to mention so I haven't been looking for a solution to anything. Unless there is a substantial benefit to upgrading, I think I'll not try to solve a problem that I don't have.

[farmboy1]

my kids can now play online games full speed with out the slow down we were seeing with #4 with the new #5. so far it is extreamly quicker

[MacBandit]

What computer are you using and what version of Windows? Also is it the same version of windows you were using with Parallels 4?

[steve-p]

I'm only using XP Pro and a handful of applications with Parallels, but the speed difference made it worth it for me upgrading from 4.0 to 5.0. It is a lot closer to native speed now than it was before. Perhaps it depends what applications you are using though.

[MacBandit]

What computer are you using?

[steve-p]

2.93GHz MBP with 4GB RAM.

[MacBandit]

So Ars finally did a review of vers. 5 and the result is pretty much what I was assuming. There are a couple of small speed increases but they are really minor and only for specific application types. The conclusion that I take away form it is that if Parallels 4 is doing what you need and you are running XP and don't plan on upgrading to 7 then you really have no need for vers. 5.

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/11/parallels-desktop-5-review.ars/7

[buzz4biz]

Quickbooks Pro 2010 (Canada) only exists in PC format. I am running Leopard on my MacBook Pro and want to load Parallels, to use QB2010 Pro. Does anyone have any experience using QB in Parallels 5. Will it work, or should I keep my old PC? I will be using XP.

[MacBandit]

If it runs on XP it will run in Parallels.