i5 or i7 for parallels?

[jagwap]

For work I'm running parallels and XP pro using CAD software on a 2.13MHz 2009 MBA, and I get the spinning wheel a lot lately when mail and safari with flash is running. I've found it's the 2GB of RAM that's filling up so I've switched to Firefox. It's much better now, but still a bit clunky compared to new.

Will it be worth the extra power boost of an i7 be useful? Also worth the hit on heat and battery? (why is there a heat and battery hit,? does the i7 idle at a higher clock speed?)

I am sick of windows and OSX upgrades making perfectly stable and fast machines slow with the upgrades, making you buy new machines.

 

[KPOM]

I can't speak for the i5 since I have a Core i7 MacBook Air, but it is a lot smoother in Windows using Parallels than the 2010 Core 2 Duo version was. The fan still kicks in a lot, but it doesn't feel sluggish when I fire up Windows 7 (mostly for Quicken, but also to read USB flash drives encrypted with McAfee software that open up only in Windows).

 

[h00ligan]

Out of curiosity why would you virtualized such demanding tasks rather than reboot. Boot time is < 20 seconds.

 

[KPOM]

Out of curiosity why would you virtualized such demanding tasks rather than reboot. Boot time is < 20 seconds.

I do actually have Windows 7 installed in Boot Camp, and if I'm going to do some serious work in Windows will just boot into it. Nevertheless, it's useful having virtualization capabilities, particularly if I'm simply referring to something in Quicken (e.g. while I'm filling out my tax returns in TurboTax in OS X).