I can't afford anything larger than a 64gb MBA, and I want to make sure dividing OSX & Windows into equal 32GB partitions will be fine for my needs. i'll be using OSX for everything other than games (willl use USB's for storage mostly), and windows will almost exclusively be used for gaming. I want to know if 32Gb is enough for windows 7 + all the diretx drivers etc I need + 1 game. I'll only be playing one at a time, and will uninstall after I'm done with it.
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Bootcamp 64gb
- Thread starter ee13lbp
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It should be fine, but it will be a bit tight under both OS X and Windows. If you are getting a 2012 MacBook Air you might consider getting a 32GB USB 3.0 flash drive with a decent read/write speed (I've seen 70-80MB/s) for about $30 and install Boot Camp on that.
Does that mean that everytime I put the usb into my computer I can load into windows, but otherwise I can use the other 64GB for OSX? Can you give me some insight on how to do this, it sounds like the perfect solution since I'll barely be using windows anyway.
You can do this in Parallels, yet that costs $. I wasn't aware that bootcamp allowed you to put a windows partition and run it off USB. Someone may provide further insight.
I dont mind paying for parallels, but I got the feeling that the fact that it runs alongside OSX means you won't get the same performance you would get if you were just running windows on it's own. If someone can prove otherwise, I won't even bother with bootcamp
I dont mind paying for parallels, but I got the feeling that the fact that it runs alongside OSX means you won't get the same performance you would get if you were just running windows on it's own. If someone can prove otherwise, I won't even bother with bootcamp
I think you can with a workaround:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3772137?start=0&tstart=0
Anyway, Parallels is $50, so that's halfway toward the cost of a 128GB model. If you will be using Windows only for gaming, Boot Camp is a better solution.
Ah thanks, but I think I'll rather just stick to bootcamp 32gb since I don't really feel like jumping through those many hoops.
Can anyone confirm if the fans in bootcamp only go at 2000rpm max... I read it somewhere else on here but wasn't sure if it's true. Obviously this will negatively impact gaming, but I should be able to find a program that can change the speed of the fans.
I don't think 64GB will feet your needs. Half of both partitions will be practically occupied by the operative systems. Add some applications and that leave you with 10-12 GB for your games (and the files you will store on the computer like mails, music etc.), you will able to have at most a couple of games on the partition and without free space you will incur in memory penalties. 128GB are the minimum to run 2 OS without too much problems.
Macbook Air are not the best machines for what you want to do. With lov voltage cpus, integrated graphics and thin form factor they don't run games smoothly and get hot fast. You should get at least a macbook pro 13'' or maybe a mac mini.
Macbook Air are not the best machines for what you want to do. With lov voltage cpus, integrated graphics and thin form factor they don't run games smoothly and get hot fast. You should get at least a macbook pro 13'' or maybe a mac mini.
Ah thanks, but I think I'll rather just stick to bootcamp 32gb since I don't really feel like jumping through those many hoops.
Can anyone confirm if the fans in bootcamp only go at 2000rpm max... I read it somewhere else on here but wasn't sure if it's true. Obviously this will negatively impact gaming, but I should be able to find a program that can change the speed of the fans.
The fans will run at full speed within Boot Camp.
64GB is mighty tight for dual boot. Even if you can manage to install both OSes and trim the fat down, it'll leave you with very little room for applications and medias. If time is on your side I'd recommend saving a little bit more and get the 128GB model.
Save more. You most likely won't live a minute with 64 GB.
I have 128 GB And I'm dying just to get one more byte. Just look at my storage!
20 GB iTunes Music Library
70 GB Applications
10 GB Base OS Files
20 GB Documents
That's on my MBA. My requirements are supposed to be:
20 GB iTunes Music Library
150 GB Applications
10 GB Base OS Fules
20 GB Documents and Files
500 GB 1080p Movies
Overall: 700 GB
But those are your requirements.
Maybe the OP does not have those, especially since movies can be stored externally (no need to have access to them 24/7), even music can, if one has a big library.
And a 70 GB Applications folder is not that common.
I have 10 to 20 GB of applications, depending on the project I work at.
A normal consumer probably has less than 10 GB.
But I agree, that 64 GB is quite small, I have such an SSD in my iMac and it sometimes gets quite small, and I don't even use Boot Camp.
OP, is there no way you can get another 100 USD to get the 128 GB model?
64GB to run both OSX and Windows 7 sounds like a whole lot of pain to manage.
With just the OS and swap/page files you'll be left with less than 15GB in each so how long will it be before you're having to remove software to install new software? My guess will be not that long and whilst external drives are great for media and the like, not so much fun always needed one connected just to get stuff done. Kind of defeats the object of a small light laptop.
Save some more money and get at least the 128GB. I have a 256GB model and even then have to juggle things every now and again (my Windows partition is 60GB now!)
With just the OS and swap/page files you'll be left with less than 15GB in each so how long will it be before you're having to remove software to install new software? My guess will be not that long and whilst external drives are great for media and the like, not so much fun always needed one connected just to get stuff done. Kind of defeats the object of a small light laptop.
Save some more money and get at least the 128GB. I have a 256GB model and even then have to juggle things every now and again (my Windows partition is 60GB now!)
I'm currenty a high school studen leaving for Uni next year. I also live in South Africa, so money is tight. My parent's have agreed to pay for half of the computer as a joint christmas & birthday present, but making R5000 (600USD) here is tight enough. I've sold a couple of paintings I've done for R800 (100USD), saved money over the past few years and also worked through the holidays yet I'm still at just under R4000 (480USD). The 128gb is an extra R1500 on top of that, and I just don't think I'll be able to make that much money by the end of the year- by which I need it. I still have a 2006 white macbook which has brought me much pleasure, but the battery is swollen behond repair & I can't exactly say it's in quite the best condition right now, so if I was to sell it I doubt I would get much more than R1000 (120USD), which imo is most certainly not the best deal. I would much rather have an extra computer with 500GB storage, an optical drive & well as being a fulling working secondary computer than just a measly 64gb extra to my SSD :/
In other words, I don't think I'll be able to afford the 128gb
I'm only going to have a select amount of music on my MBA, and I'll keep other documents in the cloud. The 24gb left in my OSX will be used to store at minimum, pixelmator, adobe Illustrator, skype, chrome, netbeans (and other programming applications) and then iLife stuff obviously. The windows partition will store 1 game at a a time at most, then I'll uninstall it and keep the saves on an external hard drive.
Movies, photos & games will all be kept somewhere other than on the MBA itself, and I'll just be keeping everything I need on there.
My reason for upgrading is because the fans on my macbook are driving me insane (they even turn on for a youtube video), it's getting slow when I have lots of applications on & obviously the battery is completely gone (I get 30min at most). Also, I need somthing portable for uni... and games are just a plus above that.
External storage is a major headache. You have to bring Microusb-usb cables and a clunky huge External HDD. More wires for you to tangle on the bag. More hassles.
I hate external storage.
As I grew up with external storage (I now have twenty external HDDs or so), I can live with it. I also have plenty of small 2.5" USB HDDs, capacities range from 250 GB to 1 TB, one enclosure even has its cable permanently attached to the housing, thus no extra cable is needed.