Hardware Requirments

Discussion in 'Installation and Configuration of Parallels Desktop' started by BradleyB1, Mar 16, 2017.

  1. BradleyB1

    BradleyB1 Bit poster

    Messages:
    1
    Hello,
    Wondering if someone might be able to assist.
    I am evaluating the possible purchase of a MAC Book Pro. Either the 13" or 15" with the below configs (as per the current spec).

    13" Touch Bar and Touch ID
    3.3GHz dual-core Intel Core i7 processor, Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz
    16GB 2133MHz memory
    1TB PCIe-based SSD
    Intel Iris Graphics 550

    15" Touch Bar and Touch ID
    2.9GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor, Turbo Boost up to 3.8GHz
    16GB 2133MHz memory
    1TB PCIe-based SSD
    Radeon Pro 460 with 4GB memory

    What my requirement would be is to run a single instance of MAC OS and 3 x Windows 10 Virtual Machines, preferably Windows 10 64bit.
    Utilising Parallels VMWare, would it be possible to run MAC OS + 3 x Windows 10 64 Bit Instances ? The Windows 10 Instances wouldn't be CPU intensive (mainly Mail, Spreadsheets, word etc). I can run 32 bit versions of Windows 10 but this wouldn't be idea. I am a contractor and work for different companies but want to consolidate down to one machine.

    Are either of these MAC Book's able to meet the Requirement ?
    Any information would be appreciated.
    Thank you
    Brad
     
    BradleyB1, Mar 16, 2017
    #1
  2. PaulChristopher@Parallels

    PaulChristopher@Parallels Product Expert Staff Member

    Messages:
    3,112
    Hi @BradleyB1 Yes, you are able to install and run three Windows 10 64 bit virtual machines on Mac using Parallels Desktop. Both Mac is compatible to install and run three Windows 10 64 bit virtual machine as you have 16 GB of RAM on Mac side. You can set 2 GB RAM memory to each virtual machines. Parallels Desktop standard edition is good to run excel, mail and word documents. If you want to run higher end applications, go with Parallels Desktop Pro edition. In Parallels Desktop for Mac you can assign up to 8GB of RAM to your virtual machine. In Pro Edition you can assign up to 64GB of memory.
    Also note the number of virtual machines you intend to run simultaneously - as more VMs you want to run at the same time, as more computer's RAM will be consumed by Parallels Desktop (a summary of values assigned to every VM).
    The maximum amount of virtual RAM depends on the total amount of physical RAM directly: you cannot assign more RAM than your Mac has.
    When your virtual machine runs, by default it tries to lock all the memory assigned to it from the Mac RAM. However your virtual machine runs on top of the OS X, so we need to make sure the OS X is always provided with efficient memory amount to run with no glitches. It was concluded the OS X should always have access to some significant amount of RAM installed on the Mac.
     
    PaulChristopher@Parallels, Mar 16, 2017
    #2
  3. Parallels User

    Parallels User Guest

    I have an issue with memory in my VM...I have a 256GB disk supposedly available (windows 7), but in the Parallels tab Configure > General the disk size is only 90GB, and the VM has slowed down considerably. I am running Parallels 12.2.0 for Mac on a 2013 iMac 27 inch. Any ideas?
    Stephen
     
    Parallels User, Apr 25, 2017
    #3
  4. PaulChristopher@Parallels

    PaulChristopher@Parallels Product Expert Staff Member

    Messages:
    3,112
    Hi @stepheng6, if you noticed that your Windows virtual machine takes a lot of disk space, use this freeware tool to check its contents.
    Note: You have to install Scanner application mentioned in the second part of the article.
     
    PaulChristopher@Parallels, Apr 27, 2017
    #4

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