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Wanting to play steam games for windows

N

nolegirl

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 27, 2013
147
1
Hi all. For the last hour, I have been searching threads and the internet for the best route to take and decided that I would just ask. I have an early 2014 Macbook Air 13 inch, 4GB Ram and 128gb drive. I would like to run Windows 7 (or 8) so I can play Steam games (nothing heavy, but light casual games). I have recently became a big fan of Steam games and unfortunately, most of them are Windows only. My fiance' has a Windows 8 laptop, but, I love my Mac and want to use my own computer.

I know about Boot Camp, which the consensus says that's best, but, I've also read issues with trying to use a USB stick to load Windows onto it. And to be honest, I'm scared to try it for fear I may screw something up. I don't necessarily CARE that I have to reboot to switch, but I'd rather not have to. However, I'd like the best performance under the circumstances.

For my purposes, would I be better off using Parallels 10, or Boot Camp? From what I read, using Parallels only creates a virtual world and some programs will lag in performance, but I'd love being able to switch back to OSX without rebooting. Also, If Boot Camp is the better choice, would I need to purchase a downloadable version of Windows, versus using my fiance's computer to get Windows (I read that's how it works using Parallels)? Thanks in advance for any assistance!
 
dyt1983 said:
Whether you use Boot Camp or Parallels, if the other computer has an "OEM" version of Windows (one that came with the laptop and is branded like that), then you will* need to purchase a generic version of Windows to install.

* Yes, you can get around it, but "will need" to satisfy licensing agreements, and "probably need" given your savvy with respect to Windows installation.
Click to expand...


Thanks! Yeah, it came with the Windows software, and I'd rather not try to get around it so, that's fine I can purchase it. Now it's just a matter of how to get it on my Air whether using Boot Camp or Parallels.
 
dyt1983 said:
Easiest way = buy CD drive. The whole "making a bootable USB" can be very hit & miss. I was reinstalling Windows on a Dell just a couple of days ago, and I used very well respected Windows tools to create a bootable Windows USB from a genuine Windows disk and using a name brand flash drive. No matter what it wouldn't boot on the Dell, although in the same session I had no problems using the Mac to make a bootable Ubuntu USB drive that WOULD boot on the same Dell. I don't like "playing" with computers so that wasted time was pretty frustrating, so I just try to go with what is known to work and get on with it.
Click to expand...

Am I able to do this with a downloadable copy of Windows, if I purchased it online? I'd rather not have to purchase and external drive in addition to the Windows software.
 
nolegirl said:
Am I able to do this with a downloadable copy of Windows, if I purchased it online? I'd rather not have to purchase and external drive in addition to the Windows software.
Click to expand...

External DVD drives are ~$30 on Amazon and are convenient to have sometimes.

As long as you don't purchase the Apple one for $100, it's not a huge expenditure.
 
nolegirl said:
So, then, Boot Camp is a better way to go than Parallels?
Click to expand...

I haven't used either but my understanding is that Parallels is a virtual machine setup whereas Boot Camp allows you to run Windows natively on the computer.

If you're playing games, I expect that Boot Camp will be more compatible with games and give you better performance than trying to run both operating systems at the same time.
 
I finally did bootcamp a few weeks ago (after slightly wanting to but dreading it for 2 years).

Honestly it wasn't too bad. I used a spare 16GB USB drive and had no difficulty. I just googled how to on my iPad and ran through the steps. There were a few youtube videos on it as well.


I think this was one of the ones I used:

http://youtu.be/2S5YM-TQ-nc

Anyway - turns out I really don't like windows. The track pad control absolutely sucked.

Good luck.
 
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