MBP 13" vs 15" for bootcamp/virtual desktop questions and advice

[JustMack]

Hey guys, the back to school promo is on in UK and it's time for me to get my first Mac!

I plan to use OSX for surfing, movies, uni work, playing about with music, etc general use really.

I'm a student studying chemical engineering and the programmes that are used in my uni only work with windows, so I was definitely gonna either install VMware Fusion or bootcamp Windows 7.

I was wondering if the base 13" would be enough to suit my needs, or would I need to get the base 15"?

Another question I have is, what are the temperatures like when running a virtual desktop or bootcamp? would the 13" be cooler than the 15" or vice versa?

I would appreciate any informative comments, and please be gentle

 

[grahamcracker]

Hey,
I have a 13 inch. I've run xp on virtual machine and windows 7 on bootcamp. Bootcamp is seamless and feels like your running a pc, no hiccups or other weird issues. Virtual machine is very convenient but i got a definite "running an operating system inside another operating system" feel. Both work great on the 13 inch but you'll wan't to use bootcamp if your programs demand a lot...

 

[cys920622]

If you want to lower the risk of losing data (especially school documents), I'd recommend using boot camp rather than virtualization.

 

[JustMack]

Thanks guys!

What is the set up of your 13",grahamcracker? also, are the temperatures reasonable?

 

[alust2013]

Haha, that's awesome. I was in exactly the same boat a year ago, same major and all. I got the 2.4 aluminum MB, and it works great. Bootcamp works well, and runs windows like any PC would. It ran the Inventor suite and other such windows engineering apps well, albeit slower than the workstations that were in the class rooms. I also have a 20" monitor to go with it, and I love having that as well. So I would say the base 13" MBP would work just fine for you. And as far as temps go, windows runs a bit warmer, but no more than 3-4 degrees C hotter than OS X.

 

[djasterix]

I run windows 7 on Fusion 3, works great, never tried on bootcamp, I really love the security feeling of a virtual machine...

 

[JustMack]

Hey guys, I decided to get the 15" MBP instead as I felt it was more bang for buck. I absolutely love it!

On VM's, what do you guys think is better? VMWare Fusion or Parallels?

 

[chris2k5]

Hey guys, I decided to get the 15" MBP instead as I felt it was more bang for buck. I absolutely love it!

On VM's, what do you guys think is better? VMWare Fusion or Parallels?

Glad you like the 15"! Sure is good bang for the buck.

I use Parallels because everyone seemed to rave about it. What I do is I first install Windows 7 via Boot Camp and then have Parallels turn it into a Virtual Machine.

So now when I am using my MBP, when I need quick access to Windows, I just use Parallels to get to my boot camp partition AND when I want to play games or etc, I just boot up using Boot Camp Windows.

Pretty nice and slick if you ask me.