Ray Hill ([info]waywardbound) wrote,
@ 2007-11-11 14:56:00
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Parallels vs. Bootcamp
I'm getting my mom a 20" iMac, now that she has a real office to put it in. And she's excited about being able to play some of her old PC-only games, now that we can put Windows on the iMac. But I'm debating which would be the better solution, Bootcamp or Parallels.

Parallels sounds like an awesome solution, but I've never talked to anyone who has actually used it, so I'm not sure if it's just the marketing schpeel that makes it sound so good. So I'm hoping one of you might have some experience with Parallels and be able to shed some light.


This also means that I'll be putting mom's 17" Powerbook up for sale as soon as the iMac arrives. The plan is to put it up on eBay for $1000, but if one of y'all would like to save me the trouble, that would be awesome.

17 inch G4 Powerbook17" Apple Powerbook G4
- 1.5 Ghz G4 Processor
- 1.5 GB Memory
- 80 GB Harddrive
- SuperDrive (plays and records both CDs and DVDs)
- Built-in wireless and bluetooth
- OS X Tiger (compatible with Leopard)
- iLife 5 (iPhoto, iTunes, iMovie, etc)

I also have Office for Mac Pro (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Virtual PC), which I'll probably sell separately for $200.

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[info]redminx
2007-11-11 11:22 pm UTC (link)
Parallels is an emulator, so it runs *inside* the mac OS, whereas Bootcamp is a dual boot solution, so the Windows OS is running natively. For the geek, I'd say Bootcamp is the way to go if you want to take full advantage of your hardware. For your mom, it might be easier if she doesn't have to reboot her machine.

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[info]waywardbound
2007-11-11 11:32 pm UTC (link)
Yeah, mainly I'm trying to determine how much of a performance hit it is. The reviews I've read only compare the performance of playing recent high-end video games. They don't compare performance for something every-day like Outlook, or something low-end like the Price Is Right or casino games.

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[info]mavjop
2007-11-12 01:50 am UTC (link)
My understanding is that unless you're worrying about high-end video games, the performance is fine.

Don't forget also that the options are not just Parallels or Bootcamp. There is also VMWare Fusion, which is more the equivalent of Parallels than of Bootcamp in that it runs virtual machines under the host operating system, so you aren't forced to reboot to switch between them.

I would think that VMWare Fusion or Parallels would be better choices.

Edited at 2007-11-12 01:50 am UTC

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[info]spidra
2007-11-14 06:53 am UTC (link)
I have Parallels. I don't use it a lot because my job situation changed after I bought it and it was mostly for job reasons I got it. However, when I was using it, I had no trouble running the university's proprietary survey-programming app on it. No performance hit. I think Parallels would be easier for your mom to deal with than BootCamp.

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[info]waywardbound
2007-11-14 07:21 am UTC (link)
I ordered a copy, and hopefully the iMac and software will both arrive in time for me to get it all set up before Thanksgiving. I'll let y'all know how it goes.

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