Running VM from external SSD

[Robdogg3058]

Hi

I am looking to buy either a new Mac mini or iMac when they are released shortly. I need to be able to run 2 extra virtual machines.

1. Windows 8 with visual studio 2012 and SQL server 2012 (only for learning c# and SQL)
2. Windows server 2012 (Just for practicing elevating labs)

I was considering buying my new machine with a fusion drive but I believe that bootcamp can have problems with fusion drives. Also it would run on the slower part of the drive.

I was wondering if I could run parallels 8 and install my vm's on an external ssd in a USB 3.0 enclosure?

Would I need an i7 processor or would an i5 be ok?

Can anyone also tell me how much ram, processor core's and disk space I would need for each virtual machine?

Many thanks
Rob

 

[maflynn]

You can, and I've done it, but I found it to be rather slow thanks to the USB interface (at least USB2). I now have a thunderbolt drive and I may try doing that with the TB drive but its not something I thought was successful with USB.

 

[zaneliu94]

I've been running Windows 7 and 8 on my WD 1 TB USB 3.0 external drive on my rMBP with an i5 and it runs better than a windows computer.

 

[monkeybagel]

Not reason it should not work. I run VMs over Gigabit Ethernet and they work fine using VMware Fusion and VMware Workstation.

 

[Robdogg3058]

How much ram and disk space do you think I will need to allocate to each of the vm's?

I am not sure if I will have 8Gb or 16Gb Ram in my new machine.

Thanks
Rob

 

[zaneliu94]

How much ram and disk space do you think I will need to allocate to each of the vm's?

I am not sure if I will have 8Gb or 16Gb Ram in my new machine.

Thanks
Rob

For Parallels, the .pvm is about 11 GB and I only allocated 1 GB of ram to it.