Parallels AND bootcamp?

[jmdMac]

Hey everyone,
I am merely hours away from making my first mac purchase! I have settled on the 15" 2.4 i5. This should be more than enough computing power for my needs in the next 3-4 years.
However I was wondering if I will be able set up parallels 5 AND bootcamp and just choose when to use one or the other? If I am able to do this, would anyone recommend it?

My thinking is that, many of my windows programs are not very demanding(rosetta stone, ms office, etc...) and it would be more convenient to switch back and forth using parallels. Boot camp, from what I've read on a few previous threads, would be more suited for some casual gaming or more demanding tasks(engineering program/reservoir modeling program) on windows.

Well, there is. So what do you recommend? Bootcamp, parallels, or both(if this works)?
Thanks in advance!

On a side note: is purchasing from Ebay with 8% cashback from bing the best deal going for the base 15"?

 

[GadgetGeek71]

BC worked fine for me. Not sure why you would need both of them.

 

[juandixon109]

Hey everyone,
I am merely hours away from making my first mac purchase! I have settled on the 15" 2.4 i5. This should be more than enough computing power for my needs in the next 3-4 years.
However I was wondering if I will be able set up parallels 5 AND bootcamp and just choose when to use one or the other? If I am able to do this, would anyone recommend it?

My thinking is that, many of my windows programs are not very demanding(rosetta stone, ms office, etc...) and it would be more convenient to switch back and forth using parallels. Boot camp, from what I've read on a few previous threads, would be more suited for some casual gaming or more demanding tasks(engineering program/reservoir modeling program) on windows.

Well, there is. So what do you recommend? Bootcamp, parallels, or both(if this works)?
Thanks in advance!

On a side note: is purchasing from Ebay with 8% cashback from bing the best deal going for the base 15"?

parallels = vm and runs within the osx which is essentially an extra layer of processing.

bootcamp is just a way to configure your boot either osx, windows or any other os which will run natively on the hardware directly.

 

[TEG]

I currently use both Bootcamp and VMWAre Fusion (similar to Parallels). It works great. You will have fun with it.

Also, Rosetta Stone is Mac compatible, I believe both version are on the same disc.

TEG

 

[kolax]

I use Boot Camp and Parallels Desktop.

Parallels for when I am doing stuff like using Visual Basic or another Windows only app. Boot Camp for games.

Same Windows partition.. works great.

 

[jmdMac]

parallels = vm and runs within the osx which is essentially an extra layer of processing.

bootcamp is just a way to configure your boot either osx, windows or any other os which will run natively on the hardware directly.

Sorry for the misunderstanding, I know that parallels is a VM and bootcamp runs whichever OS natively. I was just asking if anyone uses or recommends using them BOTH of them.
Basically this is what I was thinking.
Bootcamp-for gaming and more demanding tasks.
Parallels 5-for simple tasks, used for convenience rather than having to reboot.

Since I have never used bootcamp or parallels, I am wondering if this is possible, and if so, a good idea?

 

[jmdMac]

I use Boot Camp and Parallels Desktop.

Parallels for when I am doing stuff like using Visual Basic or another Windows only app. Boot Camp for games.

Same Windows partition.. works great.

Thank you!!
Exactly my question, answered it great!


Anyone care to weigh in on the bing+ebay question?

 

[phrint]

Sorry for the misunderstanding, I know that parallels is a VM and bootcamp runs whichever OS natively. I was just asking if anyone uses or recommends using them BOTH of them.
Basically this is what I was thinking.
Bootcamp-for gaming and more demanding tasks.
Parallels 5-for simple tasks, used for convenience rather than having to reboot.

Since I have never used bootcamp or parallels, I am wondering if this is possible, and if so, a good idea?

I use Parallels and Bootcamp for what you are describing here. When I am working with a spreadsheet or Outlook, I will often use Parallels. When I have more intensive work to do, I will just reboot into Bootcamp. There is a specific process for activating your licenses so you only have to do it once instead of dealing with the phone activation hassle.

 

[GadgetGeek71]

I use Boot Camp and Parallels Desktop.

Parallels for when I am doing stuff like using Visual Basic or another Windows only app. Boot Camp for games.

Same Windows partition.. works great.

Never thought of that...thanks!

 

[kolax]

Are you a student...? I'd buy from the Apple Store if I were you (or online) - least if there is problems you can exchange (such as dead pixels etc).

Get a 7200RPM drive too.. makes a huge difference if you are running Virtual Machines and doing a lot of stuff on both partitions.

 

[juandixon109]

Thank you!!
Exactly my question, answered it great!


Anyone care to weigh in on the bing+ebay question?

gotcha personally i think runing BOTH a vm and native version of windows on a mac machine is overkill, but i guess to each his own.

 

[TheRekz]

I am using boot camp and parallel as well and so far I am loving it!

 

[jmdMac]

Are you a student...? I'd buy from the Apple Store if I were you (or online) - least if there is problems you can exchange (such as dead pixels etc).

Get a 7200RPM drive too.. makes a huge difference if you are running Virtual Machines and doing a lot of stuff on both partitions.

Yes I am a senior engineering student. I would rather purchase from Apple of course, however I would much rather save over $150 and use that towards parallels and win 7. Thanks for the advice on the 7200, I will most likely the original hdd myself with an after-market hdd eventually.

For everyone using parallels AND bootcamp:
Is it pretty simple to install both using the same partition, or not so much?

 

[kolax]

Yes I am a senior engineering student. I would rather purchase from Apple of course, however I would much rather save over $150 and use that towards parallels and win 7. Thanks for the advice on the 7200, I will most likely the original hdd myself with an after-market hdd eventually.

For everyone using parallels AND bootcamp:
Is it pretty simple to install both using the same partition, or not so much?

Get the Education Discount from Apple.. you'll save more than $150.

Very easy.. just install Windows via Boot Camp first, and then load up Parallels and tell it you want to access your Boot Camp partition and it'll do all the work to set it up and there you go. Once it is all set up, you can just load up Parallels quickly and easily, or reboot into Boot Camp for native mode.

Works seaminglessly with no effort or any setup changes. It's great.

 

[TheRekz]

Yes I am a senior engineering student. I would rather purchase from Apple of course, however I would much rather save over $150 and use that towards parallels and win 7. Thanks for the advice on the 7200, I will most likely the original hdd myself with an after-market hdd eventually.

For everyone using parallels AND bootcamp:
Is it pretty simple to install both using the same partition, or not so much?

Installation is pretty much straightforward using the same partition. I am my self a noob to mac, this mbp is my first mac and I was able to install it right away

 

[jmdMac]

Get the Education Discount from Apple.. you'll save more than $150.

Very easy.. just install Windows via Boot Camp first, and then load up Parallels and tell it you want to access your Boot Camp partition and it'll do all the work to set it up and there you go. Once it is all set up, you can just load up Parallels quickly and easily, or reboot into Boot Camp for native mode.

Works seaminglessly with no effort or any setup changes. It's great.

Awesome, great to hear it's simple to set up and use!

-At the apple store with the student discount my order comes out to $1800.94 with standard shipping.

-Bing+ebay come out to $1655. Approximately $150 cheaper. Basically the price of windows 7.

 

[kolax]

Awesome, great to hear it's simple to set up and use!

-At the apple store with the student discount my order comes out to $1800.94 with standard shipping.

-Bing+ebay come out to $1655. Approximately $150 cheaper. Basically the price of windows 7.

I got Windows 7 for free from my University - they have deals with MSDN.

You should find out if you are eligible for it too.

 

[aneftp]

Awesome, great to hear it's simple to set up and use!

-At the apple store with the student discount my order comes out to $1800.94 with standard shipping.

-Bing+ebay come out to $1655. Approximately $150 cheaper. Basically the price of windows 7.

I used Bing cashback on my imac core i7 purchased. Got my $196 back a couple of weeks ago. The iMac Core i7 was brand new sealed also with 3 year warranty (sealed AppleCare box also, none of that serial being sent via email). So ebay is a good way to go if you go through a person who's sold a lot.

As for Parallels and Windows 7. I had it installed on both bootcamp and Parallels. But you know what. I am not a gamer so I really didn't need it. So I am using parallels exclusively with Windows 7. It works great. Much faster with Parallels 5/Win 7 combo than Parallels 4/Windows Vista I previously had.

Too bad you missed out on the super Microsoft Windows 7 (digital river student promotion that ended in Jan). MSFT was selling retail version of Windows 7 home premium and Win 7 Profession for only $30. They actually shipped the retail full box or you could have downloaded an "upgrade" copy digitally online. But you can use the "install twice trick" of the upgrade copy and it will still activate.

 

[PAC88]

I know you said you want to get your computer directly from the Apple store. But If you buy your Macbook from here they give you a free copy of Parallels 5.0 software..

anyways.. I was wondering. is it good for your hard drive to be running two partitions at the same time? I read that you should run the virtual machine from a separate drive for best performance? But does it really matter?

 

[jmdMac]

I got Windows 7 for free from my University - they have deals with MSDN.

You should find out if you are eligible for it too.

Oh wow that would be great! How would I go about finding out whether or not I'm eligible? I have a feeling the people working at the university bookstore would just look at me clueless if I asked them.

 

[DeepIn2U]

gotcha personally i think runing BOTH a vm and native version of windows on a mac machine is overkill, but i guess to each his own.

That's exactly how I feel as well.

I have Win7 Enterprise - RC (expiring and annoying me with registration) running altogether smoothly on Parallels Desktop 5 - without the need for Boot Camp.

Personally when dual boot began with Linux on Fedora Core 2; that left a BAD taste in my mouth trying to uninstall it. Even with the previous iteration of Ubuntu Linux for WinXP was a pain to uninstall and either left me HDD stuck with it (partitioned & lost space) or botched all data on my HDD. I finally decided NEVER to have that installation again.

My setup:
Mac Mini Early 2009+4GB RAM = Parallels 5 trial (expired) for WinXP
- I'm upgrading to full retail tomorrow.
MacBook Unibody Aluminum+4GB of RAM = Parallels 5 for Win7 RC.

And I can tell you: watching 480/720 WMV in Windows or IE or learning BB development no slow downs at all - while using Mac apps as well simultaneously.

Benefits with my setup (no Boot Camp):
Parallels allows you to setup how much HDD for the VM - I set 80GB; yet you have the option to set it dynamically as needed. Not sure how this EXACTLY works; but OS X reports the full HDD space when my VM is not in use and the remaining free HDD when the VM IS in use.

my only issue, thus far (its still less than 2mths fully on Mac at home), is issues with getting my Blackberry fully connected to the VM during firmware updates/downgrades which continually fail regardless of my VM USB Settings. I'm unsure if its an issue with the VM, lack of BootCamp or anything else.

 

[Kadman]

gotcha personally i think runing BOTH a vm and native version of windows on a mac machine is overkill, but i guess to each his own.

I don't think you get the difference between the two otherwise you would see that "overkill" doesn't figure into it. For coding, browsing (yes somethings need the REAL IE unfortunately), and most applications it's nice to use Parallels, Fusion, or some other virtualization environment that lets you run Windows apps along side your OSX apps on your typical OSX desktop.

While that configuration is very convenient for moving back & forth between Mac & Windows apps, it does mean you're running an OS from within an OS. This consumes system resources and the abstraction layer that presents access to video card, drives, network connections, etc. aren't perfect. That doesn't lend itself too well to games that need every ounce of performance your machine can muster and in particular it demands a lot out of the video subsystem. In this case, rebooting into a true Windows OS without any abstraction layer is the best way to go. It's then a Windows machine with Windows drivers, etc.

What the OP is looking to do is very common and makes perfect sense.

 

[Arie]

Why would you think that it might not be possible to use both Parallels Desktop and Boot Camp? They have nothing to do with each other. I will be using both on my forthcoming MacBook Pro. The virtual machine for some standard applications, the dual boot for a few games.

 

[kolax]

Why would you think that it might not be possible to use both Parallels Desktop and Boot Camp? They have nothing to do with each other. I will be using both on my forthcoming MacBook Pro. The virtual machine for some standard applications, the dual boot for a few games.

Think he was meaning because you can use your Boot Camp partition in Parallels Desktop - so you only have one Windows as opposed to two separate ones (one for Boot Camp and one for Parallels).

 

[jmdMac]

Think he was meaning because you can use your Boot Camp partition in Parallels Desktop - so you only have one Windows as opposed to two separate ones (one for Boot Camp and one for Parallels).

Indeed I was, and thanks for all the replies everyone! I didn't want to have to have multiple partitions on my already small enough 320gb hdd, but this laid to rest some of my concerns. I ordered my base 15" i5 last night, can't wait to use it! I'm still looking around for the cheapest place to buy windows 7 64 bit and parallels.
I am also considering this hdd:
(http://www.amazon.com/Hitachi-Travelstar-Internal-HD20500IDK-7K/dp/B002FYJQB8)
Unless anyone can recommend at better one.