Running VMWare on 2008 MBP

[Squiggles13]

Hey all, I am looking to run either VMWare or Parrelles on my MBP.

Can you tell me which one is better and what are the best setting to use?

After doing some research I am getting quite a few saying that VMwar is a better option.

If anyone has VMWare, can you please let me know what the best settings is for this without making either of the OS's lag.

My MBP specs are.

Processor - 2.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory - 6GB
Graphics - NVIDAO GeForce 8600M GT 512 MB

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[yusukeaoki]

It depends on what you are going to do.
Obviously you cant play heavy games with that spec.

But by using 1 core, 3GB RAM it should run.
Maybe not as smooth but still runs.
I never tried parallel before but I had VM for years and still love it.

 

[dmarch]

I ran Windows 7 Professional on VMWare on your same machine for work with no issues whatsoever. As the previous poster pointed out, it's not for gaming but ran just fine.

 

[sjinsjca]

Set your VMs to use just one core. Contention issues will bring this machine to its knees otherwise.

Hope you have lots of RAM too.

 

[bielen]

I used VMWare Fusion up to version 4 on a Late 2008 2.4 ghz MBP for four years primarily to run Quicken. While it ran reliably, it was frustratingly slow. It took about 45 seconds to start up and Quicken could take another 45 seconds before I could do anything. I maxed the RAM to 8 gigs and put in a 7200rpm hard drive over the years.an SSD may have helped, but I finally decided to upgrade.

I purchased a new 3.4ghz i7 27 inch iMac which I received this week. Overall, it is very fast. I'm evaluating Parallels vs. VMWare Fusion and am finding Parallels more responsive so far. Overall, well worth the upgrade.

 

[robvas]

Your host OS and guest OS fighting over a single 160GB HD will be slow - get an SSD for the biggest improvement in VM performance

 

[Kasalic]

Try both on trial, there really is not a huge amount to choose. I used to prefer VMWare over Parallels a few years back as my general feeling was that VMWare was a bit more stable, but slower. Now I use Parallels on 18 Macs with minimal problems.

 

[robvas]

VirtualBox is free! Not as many features but will work for most people.