Anyone Use Mac with Parallels?

[RayD]

I currently use W10, and whilst it's on an i7 machine with tons of RAM and storage etc. the performance of the machine is shocking.  I have a Macbook Pro, i7 also, but am conscious that some of the software and equipment I use needs a Windows environment.

Does anyone successfully use Parallels or VM ware, or perhaps a bootcamp dual boot?

[ejp1684]

I'm using Parallels ver 9 on a seven year old iMac (OS 10.9) which is the old dual core. However, I have upped the RAM to 6GB which is 2 more than it's supposed to be (got it from the US) and I've replaced the hard drive with an SSD drive which has made a world of difference. I only use Windows 8.1 on the iMac for running stuff like BASS, DDS, and suchlike. I bought a dirt cheap W10 laptop from Argos (reduced) to use outside. From other stuff I've read you'd be best to use the bootcamp method which effectively gives you a Windows laptop.

Eric.

[RayD]

4 minutes ago, ejp1684 said:

From other stuff I've read you'd be best to use the bootcamp method which effectively gives you a Windows laptop.

Ok that's great thanks.  That's what I suspected may be the best route, but obviously not as versatile as Parallels or VM Ware with switching back to your Mac environment.

I may just look at swapping out the 5400 hard drive for a decent SSD in the W10 machine then as I think that's where the bottleneck is, which is a shame as it's only a few months old, but then my own stupid fault for buying an i7 machine with such an underrated hard drive.

[Ouroboros]

Yes, I run Windows 7 on my MacBook Pro within Parallels. I run all my astro software that way. I control the mount with EQMOD, BackYard EOS to control my DSLR, PHD2.  I also post process in Windows using Deep Sky Stacker and a copy of Photoshop CS5.   

When I changed to using a Mac, a few years ago, I looked into the best ways to do it and yet still be able to run my astro software, and some legacy software too expensive to replace, like Photoshop and Dreamweaver.  At the time Parallels seemed a good approach and it is still working for me. In fact,  the most reliable Windows machine I've ever used is the one I now run on my Mac!  Parallels also allows seamless switching between the Mac and Windows while both are running.  That may now be possible with other applications like Bootcamp. I don't know. 

I'm not an IT Guru by any means. So when I first decided on Parallels I spent ages watching youtube videos on how to install it effectively and getting to understand the various options.  I would say it's an expensive option if you have to buy Parallels and Windows.  Plus the people at Parallels don't always offer free upgrades, especially when Apple upgrade their operating system ... which is why I'm still on Yosemite and not using whatever latest version they're on now. 

I keep a weather eye out for opportunities to run all my software or comparable applications within OS X with the prospect eventually of not using Parallels at all.   It might be worth your doing some research to find out if that's possible for you now. 

 

[RayD]

Ok that's interesting, thanks for that.

I prefer the idea of using Parallels or VMWare because of being able to switch to Mac, which obviously you can't do with Bootcamp as you need to select the OS at start up.  Main thing is I wasn't sure how some of the drivers etc. would work this was as it's not really a full blown Windows system as such, which I think is is with a boot option.

It seems with you running pretty much everything I need, this may be an option as I already have Windows, so it's just Parallels I would need to look at.

As noted I'll do some more research on the updates and versions to see what latest iterations I can run of each without impacting on operation.

Many thanks.

[ecuador]

Bootcamp will of course be much faster, but you will have to reboot. Interestingly, VMWare Fusion has an option of loading your bootcamp partition as a VM inside OS X! It worked, but had a couple of issues, so I did not use it a lot. Fusion is reportedly a bit faster in most software right now than Parallels (that changes from version to version though), but in any case make sure you run your VM off an SSD and give it some resources. E.g. I have a quad-core Mac Pro with 36GB RAM, if I want to run something "heavy" I give the VM running off my SSD half my cores and at least 8GB of RAM.

[cfpendock]

I run VMware Fusion on my Macbook pro, using Windows XP (!!!) for imaging.  The advantage of VMware is that you can run Windows within a window which means instant switching between the two, as well as being able to drag/drop from one to the other.  The Macbook is a Pro Retina running Yosemite, and is extremely fast.  A cold boot of windows takes about 7 seconds, after which it is ready to go.  USB and peripherals can be connected to either XP or the Mac.  I should add that I never connect the  Widows side to the internet, so hopefully it will continue to work. I dread the day when I might have to upgrade from XP.......

Chris

[RayD]

Thanks guys all a really good help, I'll have a look in more depth at each option.

[JohnC64]

yep another Parallels user here.  I use my windows machines for development  and it works fine. I generally give my VM's 4 cores and 6GB of RAM and it runs quite smoothly.  Other than that, I just use the standard settings.  Hard disk is a SSDthough and that does make a big difference.

John

 

[NickK]

I got annoyed with Parallels when (without warning) an OSX update caused the thing to stop working.. their answer is to buy the next release.

So I use Virtualbox.. (old version used to have a USB-multi-core issue) and now I just use an ODroid C2.

[Owmuchonomy]

If it helps I run Autostakkert and ImPPG in a Wineskin on OS X El Capitan.  They perform better than on my daughters PC!

[Owmuchonomy]

5 hours ago, ejp1684 said:

I'm using Parallels ver 9 on a seven year old iMac (OS 10.9) which is the old dual core. However, I have upped the RAM to 6GB which is 2 more than it's supposed to be (got it from the US) and I've replaced the hard drive with an SSD drive which has made a world of difference. I only use Windows 8.1 on the iMac for running stuff like BASS, DDS, and suchlike. I bought a dirt cheap W10 laptop from Argos (reduced) to use outside. From other stuff I've read you'd be best to use the bootcamp method which effectively gives you a Windows laptop.

Eric.

Hi Eric, (sorry to hijack the thread RayD) but I was interested in your comment re. BASS.  Do you happen to know if I could run it in a Wineskin on El Capitan?  AS!2 and ImPPG run perfectly that way on my iMac.  I have tried the trial version of RSpec in a Wineskin but it won't run.

[ejp1684]

Sorry Chris, I only tried Wineskin once and couldn't get on with it. Must have been the particular program I was trying to run. Probably best to join the yahoo group https://uk.groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/astrobodger/info and try BASS out.

Eric.