Using Parallels Instead of Boot Camp

[xWaVeXeVaWx]

Now I understand that Boot Camp will give me full hardware access compared to using VM's, but I was wondering what the performance decrease actually is when using Parallels instead. Here are my specs, though I think only the processor and RAM is necessary:

Intel Core i5-2500K Processor
16GB Corsair 1600Mhz DDR3
AMD Radeon HD 6850
Corsair Force Series 3 SATA 60GB 6Gb/s
Seagate Barracuda SATA 1TB 6Gb/s

My main support for using Parallels is that I'm used to using a Macbook with 4GB of RAM and 2.x Ghz. With what looks like 3.3Ghz and more than enough RAM to allocate for Windows, for example, wouldn't it feel like using Windows on a laptop? Does anyone have any experience running VM's on a CustoMac Pro build?

 

[bmwandy123]

Hi

My Hac spec is quite close to yours and i'm using parallels. It runs really well, when you run full screen you wouldn't know you had a mac running behind it. I have windows 7 64 running and it's flawless. It's a good way of running windows if you need to without re-booting. However this is less and less now as i'm nearly 100% mac. But sometimes you need to go back. Give it a try you wont regret it.

 

[powerpcg5]

Parallels is not for gaming (except Solitaire and Minesweeper). That said, it's great for everything else.

Though, I would get a 2600K so you'd have 8 threads total. (and overclock the heck out of it.)

I still use Windows for CAD/CNC design, SQL Server Management, Fedex Shipping Software, and USPS Shipping, VMware vSphere, as these specialized programs are not available on the Mac platform.

It's also great for testing different web browser versions (IE/FF/Chrome) on different Windows platforms when working on clients sites.