Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Avenger

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 20, 2007
825
186
I bought my Mac Mini M1 8 GB at a very good price, like $425. I was thinking of trading it in for a 16GB Model so it can run parallels with Windows 11 more easily. If a Mac Mini M1 Pro is announced with 16GB of memory, would that be a good move? I don’t think I would need 32GB of memory. Hopefully the trade in value for the base M1 mini will hold up.
 
Last edited:
I’d wait until someone actually proves it can run parallels with Windows fine if that’s what you want it for.
 
Depends on what you are doing with the VM. I generally go heavy on RAM. CPU are generally much faster than most people need. Even in seven or eight years. It'll probably be fast enough for general usage. Can't say the same for 16GB RAM though. Especially split between two OS.
 
I gave up on trying to run Parallels and bought a Mini-PC off Amazon for like $350 (or could use an Intel Mac mini running Bootcamp). I have it running without a monitor on my network and use Microsoft Remote Desktop to access it. I find this WAAAAY better than using Parallels. The performance of the machine is much better, it doesn't slow down or take resources away from my Mac, the performance of Remote Desktop is virtually identical to being right in front of the computer, and best of all I can access my PC from any computer over the Internet too. So when I'm working on my M1 MacBook in a cafe I can remote connect to my mini-PC at home instead of having to use a external drive on my MacBook to store the massive Parallels disk image and then having to keep all my files in sync. I also can keep the Mini-PC completely out of sight, like in a cabinet, and never have to pay for yearly Parallels updates again. I highly recommend you ditch Parallels and try this solution.
 
Last edited:
Good points. But I already ordered the base Mac Studio using my base Mac Mini M1 as a trade in. I’m only going to use parallels once in a while. Overall though, this will be a big upgrade for me.
 
Just asking can you really run windows 10/11 on VMware fusion pro v12 on a Mac Studio Or M1 max?
 
Just asking can you really run windows 10/11 on VMware fusion pro v12 on a Mac Studio Or M1 max?
Parallels is known to work pretty well. You are running the ARM version of Windows 11. I don’t know about VMware fusion. I’m sure if there will be any bugs with getting it to work with the new Mac Studio, Parallels will work it out. It already runs on all the other Apple Silicon Macs.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MacWorld78
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.