I'm going to buy myself a iMac (FINALLY!) when Leopard comes out in October. I'm a gamer, and I want to know if I should go with Boot Camp or one of the two softwares. But I have some questions...
1. Since Macmall.com offers Parallels for a very cheap price if you buy a mac, then I want to know this... If I get Parallels, can I boot into Windows XP still or do I have to use Parallels? And also, can you put Windows applications on your dock like you can in VMWare Fusion? And can it run easily in the background? (I read somewhere in the forums that Fusion takes very little CPU, whereas Parallels takes up a lot of CPU and RAM)
2. I know it isn't the best idea to play games in one of the softwares, but if I do, how well do they run? I like to play Guild Wars, Battlefield 2142 and 1942, and some simple games like Age of Empires, and I want to know if it would be logical to play them while running Fusion or Parallels. I read that Parallels can run DirectX 9, whereas Fusion can only run DirectX 8.1, and BF2142 requires DirectX 9. Will VMWare fix that soon, or will it be a while?
3. Can I run both VMWare Fusion and Parallels Desktop? At Macmall.com, it only cost about $5 to get Parallels with your Mac. But if I want VMWare Fusion later, do I have to uninstall Parallels? And again I ask, can I run XP even if those 2 are installed?
NOTE: The iMac I'm buying is going to have 1GB of RAM when I buy it, but I'm upgrading to 2GB in December. It's going to be the 20" with 2.4 GHz, and the normal 256MB graphics and the 320GB HD.
I tried searching for these answers, but couldn't find them. Please give your opinion if you run one of these!
1. Since Macmall.com offers Parallels for a very cheap price if you buy a mac, then I want to know this... If I get Parallels, can I boot into Windows XP still or do I have to use Parallels? And also, can you put Windows applications on your dock like you can in VMWare Fusion? And can it run easily in the background? (I read somewhere in the forums that Fusion takes very little CPU, whereas Parallels takes up a lot of CPU and RAM)
2. I know it isn't the best idea to play games in one of the softwares, but if I do, how well do they run? I like to play Guild Wars, Battlefield 2142 and 1942, and some simple games like Age of Empires, and I want to know if it would be logical to play them while running Fusion or Parallels. I read that Parallels can run DirectX 9, whereas Fusion can only run DirectX 8.1, and BF2142 requires DirectX 9. Will VMWare fix that soon, or will it be a while?
3. Can I run both VMWare Fusion and Parallels Desktop? At Macmall.com, it only cost about $5 to get Parallels with your Mac. But if I want VMWare Fusion later, do I have to uninstall Parallels? And again I ask, can I run XP even if those 2 are installed?
NOTE: The iMac I'm buying is going to have 1GB of RAM when I buy it, but I'm upgrading to 2GB in December. It's going to be the 20" with 2.4 GHz, and the normal 256MB graphics and the 320GB HD.
I tried searching for these answers, but couldn't find them. Please give your opinion if you run one of these!