Running Parallels anyone?

I'm considering installing Parallels on my Mac Pro. I've avoided this so far, mostly because I'm concerned about unknown consequences running a virtual windows 7 on my workstation.

Anyone doing this already with no gotcha results??

Mac Pro 2 x 2.8 quad core Xeon
6 GB Ram
Snow Leopard 10.6.8
Final Cut Pro Suite 3

Nope!

I know if some users who do. I've never had a need to run parallels. I heard that Parallels causes Windows to run in a 32 bit environment so you may prefer boot camping.



www.strypesinpost.com

Boot camp is 64?

I did it on my laptop but I find that the I/O in windows is unpredictable. Half the time the firewire ports don't respond.

I also wonder about how much RAM would be available to a windows program running parallels.

Boot camp is native. No emulation environment. So if you're running win 7, it should be 64 bits.



www.strypesinpost.com

I just googled it up. It seems that Parallels 6 runs in whatever your OS runs in, so if you boot in a 64 bit kernel, it's 64 bit. Then again, I was on the Lightworks forum, and they said Lightworks didn't play so well with Parallels, so it could be the emulation that slows things down. You won't run processor intensive softwares via emulation anyway (eg. Rosetta).

Otherwise, I don't know of any issues running Parallels. Heck, there's an emulation environment built into Macs since the switch from PPCs. It's called Rosetta (could be EOLed in Lion).



www.strypesinpost.com

I don't have Parallels on my edit system, but I do on my business machine, a Macbook Pro. It does a fine job for what I need, primarily running Quicken.

I only run it when I need to access Windows programs, maybe once or twice a week. When you run it you might also want to invest in virus software on the Windows virtual machine, as you open yourself to all the fobs and foibles of working in that environment.

I guess the question is... what are you wanting/needing the Windows OS for? I do use it on all of my machines for different reasons. Mostly for running PowerPoint in a Windows environment (because of some cross platform incompatibilities), but I've played with some swf conversion programs & Wirecast. Our company manufactures a highly graphical intense 3d imaging program that runs fine on Parallels... but screams in Bootcamp... it's faster on the Apple hardware in Bootcamp than on the Alienware computers sped'. Roblox (lego virtual online game that my kids play) refuses to work in Parallels and will only play properly in Bootcamp.

Steve

AutoCAD 2012.

In addition, I own a copy of Sony Vegas which I would like to see if I can run on my Mac Pro.

Hello DM,

You can check out the requirements that Audodesk recommends for running AutoCAD LT 2012 through Parallels: [usa.autodesk.com]

Those requirements are (as listed in the above link):

Mac Virtualization on Parallels Desktop
You can use AutoCAD LT on the Mac via Parallels Desktop for Mac without having to boot directly into the Windows OS, so it is easy to switch between platforms. The system must meet the following requirements:

Mac OS X 10.5.x
Parallels Desktop 4.0 (4.0.3844 or higher)
Intel-based Mac (64-bit Windows Vista requires an Intel Core 2 duo or Xeon processor)
Minimum 4 GB RAM
Minimum 40 GB available disk space (100 GB recommended)

Hope that this helps!

Cheers,
Tony

thx for the reply!