Parallels or BootCamp for my Macbook?

[Star Destroyer]

Hey,
So i have been considering pursuing a Masters degree at my University, and it has occured to me that i will be doing alot of work with a computer, i have a PC desktop but thats like 5 years old, with 256RAM, 1.7 AMD 2100+ old ATI Radeon 8500LE no sound card, and loads of junk on it... SOOO

I was thinking in order to run some modelling programs (i will most likely be doing a thesis in Hydrology/Hydrogeology) on my Macbook at home or where ever i should think about running XP on my 'Tosh.

Heres my Question, the two top XP running programs seem to be Parallels and Boot Camp, the latter IS developed for the macs by apple, while the former is a third party piece, correct?

So which one is the best to use? (i mean, easiest to use, fasts, takes less space, less crashes, uses less resources etc, you all know what better means )

So i would be running it on my Macbook CD 1.83Ghz, 1GB, 60GB, (i have an external HDD i would put some files on to save space if i need to, and clean up OSX since i only have 30 gigs free, and would only run my XP for a few modelling programs such as HEC-HMS, EPA SWM, MODflow, and most likely some other i have never heard of yet... I dont now how intense they all are, BUT

What is better Boot Camp (beta for free) OR Parallels ??


Thanks for you help!

 

[dalvin200]

any intensive graphics work (games, heavy photo/video work) won't work as well in parallels.. in which case bootcamp is best bet.. otherwise head for parallels.. the new updates also allow you to drag n drop files between windows and os x!! very cool!!

also, bootcamp is free whilst parallels is not..

the choice is yours

 

[chicagdan]

Hey,
So i have been considering pursuing a Masters degree at my University, and it has occured to me that i will be doing alot of work with a computer, i have a PC desktop but thats like 5 years old, with 256RAM, 1.7 AMD 2100+ old ATI Radeon 8500LE no sound card, and loads of junk on it... SOOO

I was thinking in order to run some modelling programs (i will most likely be doing a thesis in Hydrology/Hydrogeology) on my Macbook at home or where ever i should think about running XP on my 'Tosh.

Heres my Question, the two top XP running programs seem to be Parallels and Boot Camp, the latter IS developed for the macs by apple, while the former is a third party piece, correct?

So which one is the best to use? (i mean, easiest to use, fasts, takes less space, less crashes, uses less resources etc, you all know what better means )

So i would be running it on my Macbook CD 1.83Ghz, 1GB, 60GB, (i have an external HDD i would put some files on to save space if i need to, and clean up OSX since i only have 30 gigs free, and would only run my XP for a few modelling programs such as HEC-HMS, EPA SWM, MODflow, and most likely some other i have never heard of yet... I dont now how intense they all are, BUT

What is better Boot Camp (beta for free) OR Parallels ??


Thanks for you help!

Both! You can now install Parallels to include the Boot Camp partition ... no need to buy two copies of Windows or even to install twice. So why not have both?

 

[phungy]

I haven't used Parallels so I can't recommend which is better. BootCamp is alright, granted its free...when I needed to repartition the HD to give WinXP more space, Disk Utility wouldn't let me do anything to the HD.

 

[Star Destroyer]

If i go with BootCamp, and i want to uninstall it, will it just merge the partition back to how it was earlier?
Mainly i want to be sure that if i install it i can EASILY and without effing up my macbook, uninstall it...

Also, would it work if i installed BC on an external drive and booted from that to save the partition space on my macbook?

How much longer will Bootcamp be free? since its beta, when does everyone expect it to be finalized and then sold instead of free?


cheers

 

[ckeck]

If i go with BootCamp, and i want to uninstall it, will it just merge the partition back to how it was earlier?
Mainly i want to be sure that if i install it i can EASILY and without effing up my macbook, uninstall it...

Also, would it work if i installed BC on an external drive and booted from that to save the partition space on my macbook?

How much longer will Bootcamp be free? since its beta, when does everyone expect it to be finalized and then sold instead of free?


cheers

You can easily remove Bootcamp and it will just merge the size of the Windows partition back into your OS X partition. Worked just fine when I did it.

I'm sure there is some kind of hack (maybe?) that would allow you to install Windows on an external drive, but I can pretty much guarantee it won't be easy...and maybe not stable.

Bootcamp should be free up until the launch of Leopard.

 

[SpaceMagic]

I too use BOTH!

I have Windows XP installed on a separate partition via Bootcamp and then Parallels to access it whenever I need to do something. Core2Duos allow Parallels to run the virtual pc at near full speed, it is amazing to see.

When I need graphics stuff, i.e. playing Star Trek Bridge Commander haha, I boot into XP via Bootcamp...

Use both, Bootcamp is an amazing piece of programming, which is updated all the time.