Get the 8GB. I ran parallels daily with Win 7 with 4GB or ram, and it works just fine for simple usage (Outlook, Office), but the extra RAM can only help.
It'll be tight, but you can do it. It did that pretty much same thing for a year.I am planning on getting a MBA 13" and was wondering if 4GB of RAM is enough for basic usage and parallels desktop? I mainly surf the web, listen to music and email from my laptop. I also use parallels desktop while on the road to Remote into our company server. Would i be best off to upgrade to the 8GB of Ram or will 4GB work with Parallels running windows 7 minimally?
I run Parallels with Windows 8 on my 2011 MBA 13" i7 4GB/256GB. Works fine. Sometimes its a little slow booting up but that's about it.
I generally keep Outlook, Word, iTunes, Safari, Messages, and Preview open on the OSX side. Then I use Windows 8 to run a charting program, SAS Editor, or Excel.
RAM gets basically used 100% but it works and I don't have issues with large Excel files or SAS running.
Biggest thing would be making sure you've got enough HD space. Windows 8 with all the programs uses close to 42GB.
I ended up taking advantage of the Best Buy sale and got a 13" Air w/ 256GB SSD. Pretty pumped on that price point and it works great. Plenty fast and it does everything I need it to.
It also is not my main computer. I am getting a 21" iMac w/ 16GB of Ram and the fusion drive. These 2 machines replaced my 15" retina that I just sold. Loved the retina, but for the cost and the worry of it being my only computer and the cost of repair if damaged, I decided to get rid of it and got these 2 computers for less than the price of the retina.
Thanks for all the advice.
So you're sticking with the 4GB RAM since BB did not offer the 8GB upgrade?