Windows on iMac questions

[ucfgrad93]

We are looking at getting a new iMac and my wife needs to run Windows on it. We have been running Boot Camp on our older iMac, but she doesn't like having to reboot every time she needs to switch between OS X and Windows.

So I have a couple of questions:

1. Which software is the best for running Windows without Boot Camp? Fusion, Parallels, etc.

2. How much RAM should we get on the new iMac? Running 2 OSs at the same time seems like it would require lots of RAM. In addition, we want it to last for as long as possible.

3. Will Time Machine back up the Windows data since we are not running it on Boot Camp? Right now, we have 2 separate harddrives hooked up and are looking to reduce that number.


Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[balamw]

1. Which software is the best for running Windows without Boot Camp? Fusion, Parallels, etc.

That depends on somewhat on what you are trying to do in Windows.

2. How much RAM should we get on the new iMac? Running 2 OSs at the same time seems like it would require lots of RAM. In addition, we want it to last for as long as possible.

As much as you can afford, though in general 8 GB or more should be fine for most purposes.

3. Will Time Machine back up the Windows data since we are not running it on Boot Camp? Right now, we have 2 separate harddrives hooked up and are looking to reduce that number.

Yes, but. Check with the VM software vendor if they recommend it. I'd recommend separate "snapshots" of that to be sure you get it in a consistent state.

B