Windows 7 vs XP as VM on 2007 MacBook

[kuwisdelu]

I currently have XP Professional running on VMWare Fusion on my mid-2007 MacBook (2.16 GHz C2D, 4GM RAM, 500 GB HDD) with Snow Leopard. I can get Windows 7 Ultimate cheaply through my university. Would it be worth it to upgrade? Would the higher requirements of Win 7 make it perform worse as a VM?

I'm studying for my MS in Applied Statistics, so I will primarily be using it for SAS. Actually, pretty much only for SAS. Maybe a few other Windows only programs if there's anything else I end up needing.

 

[theheyes]

If XP is doing what you need it to then there is little reason to upgrade if you're just going to boot the VM every now and again.

In terms of performance you probably won't notice a difference between the two. Windows 7 is doing more, but does it a lot better. I run W7 VMs with 512mb memory all the time and it works no problem.

I don't think you'll have any issues.

 

[kuwisdelu]

Thanks. For the moment, I don't think I'll be using it for anything more than SAS, but this is my last year in uni, so I'm thinking if I may use it more in the future I might as well as get it at the cheap price while I can — as long as it will run fine on my current hardware — if in case I decide to use it for anything more in the future.