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

Windows 7 Parallels Best version for MacBook

M

MacAndrew92

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 28, 2011
28
0
Oporto, Portugal
Hello, I bought Parallels Desktop 6, and I wanna know wich version of Windows should I install on this Machine:
Black MacBook3,1
Intel Core 2 Duo 2,00 GHz
4 GB of RAM (Upgraded)
250 GB Hard Drive
Intel GMA X3100

Wich version of you windows do you recomend and why?
I have a Windows XP Home Edition CD and the CD key, its from a dead machine I can use that licence.

I will only be using Windows to run basic software like Microsoft AutoRoute 2010, Excel 2007 and Artisteer.

Thank you

MacAndrew92
 
Well what do you mean "which version?" But I have a black macbook as well with a 2.2ghz/4gb ram setup so I guess I can chime in.

I'm also running Parallels 6 and on it I have Windows XP, Windows 7, Ubuntu, and Chrome OS.

Now from experience, they all run pretty darn fast and I have no problem doing the average, run of the mill things I would do on a computer; anything under HD video playback is flawless (I can play HD as well depending on the codec and what's going on in the background).

If you're talking about speed, Chrome OS, Ubuntu, and XP are all faster than 7, however they "all" run at a great speed regardless.

One good things about Parallels is that it takes up relatively small amounts of space. When setting it up, go into the settings (where you configure the specs of the virtual machine) and in the section for the HDD, set it at 15 gb expanding disk. This means that the machine will see 15 gigs but if you ever fill that up the computer will create more and the space will go up. You can even change it when the machine is down so you don't have to worry about that. BUT; it doesn't actually take that chunk out of your hard drive space, just makes it "visible".

I have all 4 OSs loaded up and they collectively take up around 20 gigs total, probably less. The OS takes some space to load but once you do that, it's relatively small depending on what you download to the virtual OS's harddrive.

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask, I can run them all and report back with speeds or something if you like :)
 
Young Spade said:
Well what do you mean "which version?" But I have a black macbook as well with a 2.2ghz/4gb ram setup so I guess I can chime in.

I'm also running Parallels 6 and on it I have Windows XP, Windows 7, Ubuntu, and Chrome OS.

Now from experience, they all run pretty darn fast and I have no problem doing the average, run of the mill things I would do on a computer; anything under HD video playback is flawless (I can play HD as well depending on the codec and what's going on in the background).

If you're talking about speed, Chrome OS, Ubuntu, and XP are all faster than 7, however they "all" run at a great speed regardless.

One good things about Parallels is that it takes up relatively small amounts of space. When setting it up, go into the settings (where you configure the specs of the virtual machine) and in the section for the HDD, set it at 15 gb expanding disk. This means that the machine will see 15 gigs but if you ever fill that up the computer will create more and the space will go up. You can even change it when the machine is down so you don't have to worry about that. BUT; it doesn't actually take that chunk out of your hard drive space, just makes it "visible".

I have all 4 OSs loaded up and they collectively take up around 20 gigs total, probably less. The OS takes some space to load but once you do that, it's relatively small depending on what you download to the virtual OS's harddrive.

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask, I can run them all and report back with speeds or something if you like :)
Click to expand...

Thanks ;) I think I might buy Windows 7 Home Basic, I don't think XP will be supported in the future so I think I will go with Windows 7
 
MacAndrew92 said:
Thanks ;) I think I might buy Windows 7 Home Basic, I don't think XP will be supported in the future so I think I will go with Windows 7
Click to expand...

That's great; IMO if you have a somewhat powerful computer (2.2, 4GB) you can run Windows and all of its applications with little to no lag whatsoever. I'm (again) running an old blackbook and I have no problem at all switching between 7, XP, Ubuntu, and Chrome OS to get whatever I want done WHILE doing things in OS X as well.

There is also a great feature that lets you use the same partition from your parallels with bootcamp if you ever want to do that. I don't really have a need for it currently but it's always good to have.

PS: Before I forget, when you configure the virtual machine (make sure you untick the box that says "automatically configure") and you choose the RAM that the machine has, it isn't taking the ram away from your actual computer.. I don't think? I could be wrong here and I'll check later on today, but I always set it to 2 gigs (my computer has 4).

I'll test later today when I get out of this award ceremony and see what I find, however you can (and this is the beauty) always change the specs of the virtual machine. From the HDD space (which is completely dependent on what you put in to maximize efficiency) to the RAM to the CD drive to audio drivers. It really is a great program.

If you have any more questions or want me to try something, feel free to ask :)
 
Young Spade said:
Well what do you mean "which version?" But I have a black macbook as well with a 2.2ghz/4gb ram setup so I guess I can chime in.

I'm also running Parallels 6 and on it I have Windows XP, Windows 7, Ubuntu, and Chrome OS.

Now from experience, they all run pretty darn fast and I have no problem doing the average, run of the mill things I would do on a computer; anything under HD video playback is flawless (I can play HD as well depending on the codec and what's going on in the background).

If you're talking about speed, Chrome OS, Ubuntu, and XP are all faster than 7, however they "all" run at a great speed regardless.

One good things about Parallels is that it takes up relatively small amounts of space. When setting it up, go into the settings (where you configure the specs of the virtual machine) and in the section for the HDD, set it at 15 gb expanding disk. This means that the machine will see 15 gigs but if you ever fill that up the computer will create more and the space will go up. You can even change it when the machine is down so you don't have to worry about that. BUT; it doesn't actually take that chunk out of your hard drive space, just makes it "visible".

I have all 4 OSs loaded up and they collectively take up around 20 gigs total, probably less. The OS takes some space to load but once you do that, it's relatively small depending on what you download to the virtual OS's harddrive.

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask, I can run them all and report back with speeds or something if you like :)
Click to expand...

Young Spade said:
That's great; IMO if you have a somewhat powerful computer (2.2, 4GB) you can run Windows and all of its applications with little to no lag whatsoever. I'm (again) running an old blackbook and I have no problem at all switching between 7, XP, Ubuntu, and Chrome OS to get whatever I want done WHILE doing things in OS X as well.

There is also a great feature that lets you use the same partition from your parallels with bootcamp if you ever want to do that. I don't really have a need for it currently but it's always good to have.

PS: Before I forget, when you configure the virtual machine (make sure you untick the box that says "automatically configure") and you choose the RAM that the machine has, it isn't taking the ram away from your actual computer.. I don't think? I could be wrong here and I'll check later on today, but I always set it to 2 gigs (my computer has 4).

I'll test later today when I get out of this award ceremony and see what I find, however you can (and this is the beauty) always change the specs of the virtual machine. From the HDD space (which is completely dependent on what you put in to maximize efficiency) to the RAM to the CD drive to audio drivers. It really is a great program.

If you have any more questions or want me to try something, feel free to ask :)
Click to expand...

Thanks ;) I have 4 GB how much RAM should I give to Windows?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back