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Installing Parallels/Windows 7/Office 2010 on my MBP

WannaBMW3

WannaBMW3

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 22, 2007
137
0
Central Cali
Hi peeps,

Thank you for reading and responding to this thread. 2 questions:

1. How much disc space will installing Parallels 6/Windows 7/Office 2010 on my MBP take up? I currently have 47GB free.

2. Do you think it is economically viable to install Parallels 6/Windows 7/Office 2010 on my MBP? The student price discount I can get (total) is $240 for all 3 or $79 each. I do know new laptops are going for around $400-$600.

I am a law student who NEEDS to use OneNote!!! I've tried every mac-based option and nothing comes close! Thanks for your advice guys!
 
You can use the free VirtualBox instead of Parallels if all you are going to be running is Office.

I believe windows 7 is about 10 gigs when installed. I don't know how much space Office takes up, but a 15-20GB virtual disk will probably suffice.
 
OP, you're going to be cutting it close with that limited amount of space left on your HD. What size is your drive? Is replacing it with a higher-capacity drive an option?

I'd recommend at least a 32 Gb partition for Windows, Office, etc. A partition is a bit like a desk - sure, you can cover up every square inch of it, but it's far more functional to have enough empty space so that you can move things around when you need to. When a partition starts to get full, performance starts to suffer.
 
Corndog5595 said:
You can use the free VirtualBox instead of Parallels if all you are going to be running is Office.

I believe windows 7 is about 10 gigs when installed. I don't know how much space Office takes up, but a 15-20GB virtual disk will probably suffice.
Click to expand...

Oh I did not know about VirtualBox...

Is it on par with parallels?
 
Tomorrow said:
OP, you're going to be cutting it close with that limited amount of space left on your HD. What size is your drive? Is replacing it with a higher-capacity drive an option?

I'd recommend at least a 32 Gb partition for Windows, Office, etc. A partition is a bit like a desk - sure, you can cover up every square inch of it, but it's far more functional to have enough empty space so that you can move things around when you need to. When a partition starts to get full, performance starts to suffer.
Click to expand...

Yeah I have a 200GB 7200RPM hard drive and replacing/upgrading it - not too sure if that's an option or not.

Yeah I did a little bit of research and found 30GB is the base for installing windows 7 :(
 
WannaBMW3 said:
Yeah I have a 200GB 7200RPM hard drive and replacing/upgrading it - not too sure if that's an option or not.

Yeah I did a little bit of research and found 30GB is the base for installing windows 7 :(
Click to expand...

I'm using ~37GB right now with Windows 7 Utimate, Office 2010 (Excel, Word, Powerpoint, OneNote), and Photoshop (CS5 Solo) essentially carrying the bulk of everything. (Music is on separate partition.)
 
WannaBMW3 said:
Oh I did not know about VirtualBox...

Is it on par with parallels?
Click to expand...

For what you are using it for, it should be fine. If you worked somewhere where you were allowed to bring in your own laptop but had to be running Windows (and you were too stubborn to just install on another partition - bootcamp) then you would want to use Parallels.
 
Mike225 said:
I'm using ~37GB right now with Windows 7 Utimate, Office 2010 (Excel, Word, Powerpoint, OneNote), and Photoshop (CS5 Solo) essentially carrying the bulk of everything. (Music is on separate partition.)
Click to expand...

Oh nice! Ultimate - :)

How's the performance of Mac OS and the Windows 7? Pretty smooth?
 
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