Running virtual machines, what's more important?

[evanrousso]

I am planning on getting a new MBP soon that I plan on running a virtual desktop on. With this in mind, is it more important to get the faster processor or more RAM?

I would like to wait until the 13" MBP get a processor refresh, but I may not even need anything more than a 2.8 ghz C2D.

Thoughts?

 

[miles01110]

Ram.

 

[belvdr]

It depends on the application you're virtualizing. You can oversubscribe the RAM, which is common and one of the major benefits of virtualization, but you can't make up for a loss of CPU speed.

At either rate, the Core 2 Duo chips are suboptimal for virtualizing. Quad core and above is where you want to be.

 

[gnasher729]

I am planning on getting a new MBP soon that I plan on running a virtual desktop on. With this in mind, is it more important to get the faster processor or more RAM?

I would like to wait until the 13" MBP get a processor refresh, but I may not even need anything more than a 2.8 ghz C2D.

Thoughts?

Decide what would be a good amount of RAM for a Macintosh.
Decide what would be a good amount of RAM for a Windows PC.
Add both numbers.

That's how much RAM you need, or you will be very unhappy. And 8 GB of RAM is quite cheap today. If you check out prices, tons of RAM and a huge hard drive are cheap compared to a processor upgrade. And they are overall much more beneficial.

 

[Tumbleweed666]

Memory.
Lack of processor will slow you down.
Lack of memory will cripple you