512GB vs 1TB SSD for Parallel Desktop?

[HonestChicken]

Hi everyone,

I am trying to decide whether I should get the 512GB or (add $480) 1TB version for 2016 15" Macbook Pro w/ Touch Bar. I mainly use it for school and I need parallel desktop to run Windows and Linus on it. I also want the 15" model because I split screen, and the letters are bigger if I split on the 15".

So just wondering what do you guys think about this?

Thank you very much

 

[dilutedq]

Get a samsung t3 to put the vm's on.

 

[hiddenmarkov]

What type VM's will you be pushing? Quick test VM's, or will they be used for heavier tasks?

reason asking windows VM's can take up some space when you factor in OS and applications installed. Bigger would be better for this potentially. Best way to decide would be to see what your normal windows installs you have (if any) and maybe factor in some fudge factor if the VM will expand on that.

Gui or CLU Linux is the heart of the which vm question though. I have experience with cent OS and Ubuntu CLI server installs in parallels. these need very little space based on purpose. example would be a bare bones centOS install to run DNS services can be a real small install. Under 2gb of drive space actually if bored and want to try it out lol. On average though I make my Linux CLI servers about 10-20gb drive space needs depending. A LAMP stack (or other popular web serving setup) would need some space based on how much data you will throw at MySQL (or other DB of choice)...your database needs would dictate size if that's a route being looked at.


Gui based can take up space like windows can. I don't play with these much, maybe the gui users can chime in for you.

 

[richpjr]

Get a samsung t3 to put the vm's on.

While this takes away from the portability, it's not a bad idea at all. I went with 512 and have a Windows 10 partition set up for some development work I do with Visual Studio and SQL Server. If my VM storage grows too much, I will do this exact thing.

 

[bentom13]

Get a samsung t3 to put the vm's on.

I need to run Windows as well to be able to use BIM software on my MacBook Pro/iMac.

Is it best to use software like Parallels/VMware or BootCamp?

Are you able to put these on the external drive so that it doesn't use any space on my Mac SSD? If so are there any links showing how to do this?

If I was to get an external SSD like this and put windows on it, would I be able to swap it between my iMac & MacBook Pro or would this not work?

Thankyou in advance!

 

[dyn]

The Samsung T3 is a USB3.1 device that only has speeds of up to 450MB/s. It also means that it doesn't support NVMe. The internal SSD of the MBP does have NVMe which can be very beneficial to those that run VMs. The internal SSD is simply the faster one. It makes cloning VMs which you are probably going to do a lot. A good way of using VMs for testing purposes is by creating a so called template VM. It simply holds a basic installation of whatever OS (Windows in this case and some Linux distro). You make a full clone of this template VM whenever you need a new VM. This requires both a fast SSD and diskspace so for this the internal SSD has the advantage.

The biggest challenge here is getting the right amount of diskspace. For that you need to check out the template that is used for creating both a Windows and a Linux VM. Also check out your current VMs. That should give you an idea of what diskspace is needed. Don't forget that to check whether the VM disk is thick or thin provisioned (the first means all the space is assigned, the second means only the necessary space is assigned which can save actual diskspace).

Btw, I doubt Linus is going to like him being run in a VM though

 

[HonestChicken]

I need to run Windows as well to be able to use BIM software on my MacBook Pro/iMac.

Is it best to use software like Parallels/VMware or BootCamp?

Are you able to put these on the external drive so that it doesn't use any space on my Mac SSD? If so are there any links showing how to do this?

If I was to get an external SSD like this and put windows on it, would I be able to swap it between my iMac & MacBook Pro or would this not work?

Thankyou in advance!

Both VMWare and Parallel allow you to attach existing virtual machines. I was able to install the virtual machines on a USB and run them between computers that have either parallel or VMware installed.