The Big Switch and questions

A

antivirus

Bit poster
Hello,

I appologize if this doesn't belong here, but it seemed to be the best place I could find for this type of message.

I've been a PC user for years, and (like many people) think that this amazing software might be enough for me to make the switch to a Mac. There is too much software on a PC that I use regularly that I don't believe Mac supports, but this would be exactly what I need to keep my regular lifestyle, along with adding what I would imagine are many many great Mac-only programs.

On to my questions...

With Vista running as a Guest OS, does the transparency work in Coherence mode, if at all? This isn't a deal breaker by any means, but it would be a nice feature.

Secondly, when you install a Guest OS in Parallels, does it create a partition for it, or does it load an image like VMware offers... or maybe both? I would not be using this as a developer tool, and would prefer a physical partition.


Thirdly, how memory intensive is this application? Can it work successfully on a macbook, or is a macbook pro necessary? I am leaning towards a Pro if I make this switch, and if that is the way, is the lower end pro sufficient for this to work smoothly?


I appologzie if these have all been answered, but any responses are truely appreciated.
 
I use Parallels to run all of my work applications on my OS X desktop and it is great. I'd use XP SP2 if at all possible as Vista is a resource hog and you will be running 2 OSes on one machine. With that said, here are some answers.

No transparency at the moment. Parallels does not yet fully support DirectX 9. Aero support is planned for an update to 3.x.

Parallels creates a virtual HD by default, just like VMware.

Paralles by itself takes about 15% of a single CPU when having XP SP2 loaded and running with no other apps running. Vista will take a LOT more (I get around 65% usage of one CPU with vista loaded and nothing else running). Vista I'd definitely put on a MBP and not a MB, but that is just my opinion.
 
Thanks for the quick reply.

XP SP2 it is if performance is as rough as you say. That definitely makes sense, as it really doesn't run incredibly smooth on my PC as it is now. I can just transfer my SP2 license from the PC I had it on (purchased retail) to this mac then right?


I think I am going to go with the MBP. I get some sort of discount with my school, I think its about $200 off.

My next question, from anyone who has used the software and the computer, is which book do I want?

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APP...se&mco=3856D31F&node=home/macbook/macbook_pro

Should I go all out and get the upgraded 15.4"? I don't particularly want one as large as the 17" is.


Again, thanks for being helpful,

Rob
 
I've got a 15" myself of the previous generation. I think it's the perfect size. Sometimes I wish I had the 17" screen when gaming but the 15.4" screen size / resolution is perfect imho. If you can afford to get the 7200 rpm 160GB drive instead of the 5400 160GB model you'll see improvements in the speed of games and applications like parallels. Also, I'd heavily advise against upgrading to 4GB through Apple. Other World Computing (www.macsales.com) has the 2GB chips for $125 or so. And in all honesty 2GB is plenty even for Parallels. I only got the 2GB DIMM so I could play WoW without shutting down my Parallels VM (that should also tell you what kind of power the book provides as I can keep my XP session open and play pretty intensive graphics games at the same time).
 
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