I am a pc user and I need of a new desktop. My son and friends have macs. I have hundreds of pc documents created in wordperfect. I do all my finances on a windows financial program. I have research software; all windows based. So, will parallel take care of my documents, software needs until I have completely turned over everything to mac software? I heard that the computer slows down using parallel. Is this true? Will the 17", 512 ram, 160 gig harddrive mac desktop take care of my needs while using parallel. I need a "parallel" user to answer. Thanks, hnhelton
You don't say what OS you will be virtualizing but I presume it is XP. First, 512MB is not sufficient. You will want at a minimum 1GB and probably 2GB would be better. A dual processor version (core 2 duo) of the MAC would be a good choice and make your performance acceptable (with the 1GB+ memory). I can't speak for the stability of a MAC host.
YES YES YES since June 2006 yes put in 2 gb memory all machines ship with a minimum memory to keep the list price down Do not go this way if you want major graphics for the latest games - use a dedicated WIn Xp sp2 growling games work station Most of us long term mac users use 2 screens so add a 22 inch to the 17 inch best to keep documents backed up on an external hard drive or on the web PC or Mac or on a networked file server x 2 I do my online banking x 4 on parallels a VM has to be managed like any other WinXp machine avoid vista just now - one system new to you would be enough to cope with it will take you a few weeks to learn so maintain your old system as a back up Hugh W