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Macbook Pro - VMware Fusion

I

iHorta

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 23, 2011
10
2
Hi!

Can the Macbook Pro 13" I5 2.4GHz with 16GB RAM and 500GB HD run well Lion and VMware Fusion with four or five virtual machines at same time (2x Windows Server 2008 R2 and 3x Windows 7, maybe Ubuntu)? Or should I buy with a quad core i7 processor? What do you think?

Thanks!
 
iHorta said:
Hi!

Can the Macbook Pro 13" I5 2.4GHz with 16GB RAM and 500GB HD run well Lion and VMware Fusion with four or five virtual machines at same time (2x Windows Server 2008 R2 and 3x Windows 7, maybe Ubuntu)? Or should I buy with a quad core i7 processor? What do you think?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

It's not going to run that many even with the quad-core. (at least not well at all). Each one is going to require a core and there needs to be one for the controller to run with any kind of response time.
 
Why are you running so many VMs?
You're gonna need a Mac Pro to make that even usable
 
All depends on what your doing with the VM's? If your just building the OS's and testing a few things then you will be fine. If on 2008 your running Exchange, sql etc then you will need more power.
 
Hi, thanks for the answers.

I'll use this Macbook Pro at work and it will replace my MBA. I'm a sysadmin and I always have Safari with a lot of tabs, Mail, Things, four Microsoft RDP and Terminal open. I use Microsoft Word, Excel, Preview and Team Viewer a lot too but they aren't always open. Others application run on servers and I use RDP to access them, so I'm ok with that.

I want create some virtual machines for testing without being concerned about anything. I can't use VMware fusion on MBA because it has only 2 GB Ram and it is already out of memory (page outs more than 14 GB everyday). So I'm using a PC to make some tests.

I won't run those VM's (Windows Server + W7) all the time but I'll need to use them together at some point. I'm studying for WS2008 Microsoft Exams (I am certified on WS2003) so I'll use VMware for software testing and learning purposes.

Buying a desktop is out of question because I sometimes have to travel on business, so a laptop is the right thing for me. :D

Thanks again!
 
You'll really need an i7 & SSD to run that many simultaneously, and 4-5 is going to be pushing it.

I run a Linux cluster over a virtualized SAN on my early 2011 i7 MBP. 16gb and an SSD. The VMs run fine.
:)
 
Last edited:
dhartung02 said:
Are you guys leaning towards VMWare Fusion or Parallels on the new Rmbp?
Click to expand...

Read a comparison of the two recently( sorry can't link you ,can't remember where it was), they ran multiple benchmarks and tests and parallels performed better on almost everything. I ended up ordering parallels because it just looked like a more polished interface and had better performance. Ive used older version of both, but am anxious to see how windows performs under parallels once I receive my rMBP.
 
-tWv- said:
Read a comparison of the two recently( sorry can't link you ,can't remember where it was), they ran multiple benchmarks and tests and parallels performed better on almost everything. I ended up ordering parallels because it just looked like a more polished interface and had better performance. Ive used older version of both, but am anxious to see how windows performs under parallels once I receive my rMBP.
Click to expand...

Awesome - Post back and let us know! I plan on running a work VM from my Rmbp when it arrives. Just not sure which software to go with. Also wondering when they typically release new versions?
 
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