8GB ram. Ideal configuration?

Powerbook 2.8ghz with 8 GB Ram running 10.6.2. What is the ideal memory allocation for VM with Windows 7?

 

MS says that you'll want to use 1 GB with Windows 7 / 32 bit and 2 GB for Windows 7 / 64 bit.

 

8gb system here.. I give the VM 3gb.

 

Hmmm... so anywhere from 1 GB to 3 GB?

What about processors? I have Parallels configured to use both processors of the duocore. I also have Parallels set to optimize for VM instead of Mac. Does that sound right?

 

Leave it at 2.. however if you do a lot of multitasking or have a lot of stuff running in the background (rendering or similar) and things seem unreasonably sluggish try setting to 1 cpu - that way you'll basically have 1 dedicated cpu for each OS.

But for just a normal Win 7 desktop, leave it at 2.

 

yes, sounds right (with 8 Gig you can easily afford to optimize for the VM, I'd think). As to whether to assign 2 or just one virtual processors, best is to try it out. On my MBAir assigning 2 processors to the VM may cause the CPU to become quite hot, which in turn causes the Mac OS to turn off one of the cores which then makes the VM slow until everything's cooled down again (ah, those pesky thermodynamics) - so I only use 1 processor. Your results may of course vary. Just try it out :-D (but make a backup of your VM before)

 

I have 16MB RAM Quad Core ... I use 8MB RAM for VM and 4 processors