HI, following on from the locked "parallels vs bootcamp" thread... I didn't want to muck about with bootcamp as I need to run multiple OS alongside each other, but Specimen's comment about a VM on a separate spindle being faster due to reduced IO contention between the host and guest was worth a further look once I got bored with sticking pins in a Specimen doll for Halloween. TBH I didn't think it would make much difference since the IO speed of the SSD in my rMBP is probably about 500MB/s which should be fast enough not to be a factor, right? Right. So I grabbed a spare 128GB SSD (a couple of years old, but SATA3 nevertheless), stuck it in a USB3.0 caddy via a USB powered hub, partitioned it as Mac OS Extended (is that the most sensible?), and moved a couple of my VMs to it. And oh boy it is SERIOUSLY faster than the same VM on the host OS's disk. * Windows 8.1 starts up in less than half the time, and a big applications like Visual Studio (with a tonne of heavyweight extensions) loads in about 4 seconds compared to ~10 previously. Word and Excel 2013 open in 1-2 seconds. That's about as fast as native on my old work i7 desktop. * Ubuntu 14.04 starts in about the same time, but apps open in less than half the time. * other debian and debian-derivatives are similar, though lighter desktops like elementary are ridiculously fast. As far as I can see - right now Thunderbolt wouldn't give me much more, and the cost is so much higher than for USB3: http://www.macworld.com/article/2039427/how-fast-is-usb-3-0-really-.html Taters Rich
