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krishmk

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 11, 2010
440
191
Finally decided to buy a Mac and was wondering if rMBP 13 inch with 8 GB and 256 can sustain with both OS.

I need Parallels only to remote connect to work on windows if the Remote desktop on Mac does not work (along with RSA secureID and Cisco Anytime Connect).

Mac will only be used for daily browsing as a primary laptop but wont be used for programming as I have another windows laptop and a desktop for that.

Will this config cause any issues or should I buy 15" with i7 processor/16GB?
 

Cuniac

macrumors 6502a
Jan 23, 2013
502
122
Phoenix
Finally decided to buy a Mac and was wondering if rMBP 13 inch with 8 GB and 256 can sustain with both OS.

I need Parallels only to remote connect to work on windows if the Remote desktop on Mac does not work (along with RSA secureID and Cisco Anytime Connect).

Mac will only be used for daily browsing as a primary laptop but wont be used for programming as I have another windows laptop and a desktop for that.

Will this config cause any issues or should I buy 15" with i7 processor/16GB?

Kind of a two part answer, so will it work? yes. will it work well? kind of. The reason being that the 13in uses dual core i5/i7 chips. Parallels lets you pick how many cores it will use for the OS. This comes in handy as it can super tax your computer and make the Mac side un-usable, or letting you set resources for multiple OS emulations.

Having said that with the 13in you only have the two cores to work with. The i7 will show in parallels as 4 but its just the hyper threading its 2 cores to be more efficient. If you leave one for the Mac and one for windows it will work but can be sluggish. With the 15in you get twice as many cores, giving you a total of 4 to work with (8 Hyper threaded). This could allow you to give two to the Mac and two to Windows, practicality making each run as well as if it was two 13in mbps. Ok well not really due to sharing the GPU and parallels emulation overhead, but I think you get my point. Yes it will work with the 13in, but it will work a lot better with the 15in. Plus the 15in comes standard with 16GB ram that helps a lot.
 

SE43

macrumors member
Apr 2, 2015
95
10
I used Parallels (With Win8.1) on similar specced rMBP, worked great.
 

durruti

macrumors regular
Mar 26, 2004
226
3
Jersey
I like VMware Fusion 6. The graphics work well with drivers provided. Tried Parallels one time. Don't remember which version, but graphics felt slower. Never tried VirtualBox. Atleast I think I didn't.
 

Freyqq

macrumors 601
Dec 13, 2004
4,038
181
Finally decided to buy a Mac and was wondering if rMBP 13 inch with 8 GB and 256 can sustain with both OS.

I need Parallels only to remote connect to work on windows if the Remote desktop on Mac does not work (along with RSA secureID and Cisco Anytime Connect).

Mac will only be used for daily browsing as a primary laptop but wont be used for programming as I have another windows laptop and a desktop for that.

Will this config cause any issues or should I buy 15" with i7 processor/16GB?

What's wrong with microsoft's remote desktop client on mac? Virtualbox might be sufficient for this task, and you'll save a little money.
 

krishmk

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 11, 2010
440
191
What's wrong with microsoft's remote desktop client on mac? Virtualbox might be sufficient for this task, and you'll save a little money.

If I cannot configure the Cisco VPN, I need an option to run windows along side Mac for remote desktop.

If I can get the VPN working, then windows is no longer needed.
 

Cuniac

macrumors 6502a
Jan 23, 2013
502
122
Phoenix
If I cannot configure the Cisco VPN, I need an option to run windows along side Mac for remote desktop.

If I can get the VPN working, then windows is no longer needed.

I don't see a reason why you cant connect to the Cisco VPN. I used to work from home with an iMac on 10.7 and it would connect to our Cisco VPN
 

krishmk

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 11, 2010
440
191
I don't see a reason why you cant connect to the Cisco VPN. I used to work from home with an iMac on 10.7 and it would connect to our Cisco VPN

Never had a Mac before and this puts me at ease.
 
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