3 GB of RAM is more than enough since 32-bit Windows can't use more than 4 GB. As far as CPU cores, it depends on what you're doing. If it's basic tasks, such as Office, web, etc, 1 is enough. Computation programs (eg MATLAB) can benefit from 2 cores.
Please excuse my ignorance. I recently purchased a mini with Win 8 (32 bit?) installed in Bootcamp. How would I reduce the RAM and HD space on the Bootcamp partition?
I'm not answering your question but offering the alternative I chose - I bought Parallels Desktop and "migrated" my Bootcamp partition into a virtual machine, then deleted the Bootcamp partition altogether. Now I can run Windows and allocate what resources (cores, RAM, disk space) as I see fit.
http://kb.parallels.com/en/113658
I have 4 user profiles on my Mac, and installed the virtual machine in my "Shared" directory, modifying the User Privileges so that each User can Read/
Write to the VM. I can access the VMs in each User account and set up the number of cores and RAM that a VM can use for each User - I allocate 2 cores when I use Access in one User account, and 1 core in the other accounts. QED. I'm running Parallels Desktop v. 8 on 10.9.2 and it works fine; I'll update to v. 10 when it comes out likely this summer (and after its first service update comes out!).
You could even put the VM(s) on a thumb/SD drive or external disk, which I've done in the past with no issues...
Sorry, looooooong day today and I've got to hit the road in the morning for a few days for work.Thanks.Do you need the registration code for Win 8 to migrate it? This came with Win 8 on the Bootcamp partition and it has asked me to register it twice? I think that indicates it may not be kosher? I don't have the code and when asking the seller he sent me a code that doesn't look correct. 8 seems to be working OK so I don't want to enter a bogus code and have it stop working.
I had Parallels on my old Mini with win 7 that I migrated from my old PC. Worked fine. As I recall I needed the code (which I had).
I have moved and lost the Parallels disc, I still have the code thou. Guess I'll contact the parallels folks and see what I can do. Bootcamp takes forever to load.
Late 2013 MacBook pro 15 with 2.3 quad core i7 and 16 Gb of RAM. What is the recommended max settings for (core numbers and RAM) inside Parallels to run Windows 8.1 32-bit?
Thanks in advance
That said, I'm wondering why you're running off a 32-bit system when x64's the norm![]()
I bought the Mini used and it had the 32 bit installed. Is there a way to upgrade to 64 bit?
I took advantage of the $40 Win 8 upgrade when it was available, was running 32-bit XP SP3 at the time. This "fiasco" is bantered about elsewhere, but all I use is Office and several XTERM utilities to connect to surveying hardware - no need for much RAM for my uses.
----------
Yes, there is! Go buy a new install disk, and install a new, clean 64-bit Win 8 partition. No, seriously. MS ties the SN of an install to one install - period, forever.![]()