It's here! My brand new MacPro - now what do I do Windows wise?

simon · Apr 24th, 2009, 12:42 AM

It has finally arrived, my brand new, custom furbished MacPro Quad - 1TB, ATI video and extra RAM - superbly smokin' fast. Actually the only thing I have tested has been Lightroom 2.0 and so far it has put my G5 to shame, I'm sure I will be pleased with the rest of my design software when I get back to work.

Now, one of the reasons I was looking for my MacPro is the ability to run Windows - I would like to bring my bookkeeping to my system rather than having it on my ancient PC that creaks and groans every time I turn it on. There are a few Windows only photography tools I would like to eventually try and of course I would be able to play newer games again. The downside of this is Windows itself.

Looks like I have three choices: BootCamp, VMWare, and Parallels. I have installed a separate drive in the MacPro for Windows to be installed on (just in case I get one of those root viruses you hear so much about). Could anyone advise me which program would suit my needs best and why - pros and cons would be nice too.

Chealion · Apr 24th, 2009, 01:48 AM

The Coles Notes:
Boot Camp requires you to restart your computer in order to use it and gives Windows complete access to your hardware.

The virtualizaton software (Parallels or VMWare) allow you to run Windows while being started up in Mac OS X. It won't run as fast as it would natively (although pretty close) and it requires you to give RAM up to the virtual machine. Personally this is my preferred way to run Windows and Linux at work when I have the RAM available as I can open and shut down the extra "machine" whenever I please. The other additional advantage is that you can copy the virtual machines between computers without needing to re-image a hard drive or play around with drivers.

chas_m · Apr 24th, 2009, 02:11 AM

If you need 100% hardware compliance, then you want to use Bootcamp. It's a bit more "trouble" to restart when you want the Windows side, but six months from now you will realise that you hardly ever boot into it anymore.

If you can live with 95% Windows compliance, Parallels or VMWare Fusion. Both very good and very actively progressing.

If there's just a couple of Win apps you need, check out CrossOver. No need to buy another Windows license as you would for all of the above options, it works in a different way but on a more limited range of programs.

There are some other, cheaper alternative emulators the names of which escape me at the moment that have their fans here, but methinks there's a reason the first three I mentioned have 95% of the "windows on Mac" market ...

gwillikers · Apr 24th, 2009, 05:56 AM

Congrats on your new MacPro!

You mentioned gaming, so Boot Camp is the way to go. The only legitimate complaint about owning a Mac (not many games) disappears when you use Boot Camp to run Windows game titles. I've played many of the latest games on my MacPro and I have had no trouble at all. I'm using XP, by the way.

For most other Windows needs I run VMWare Fusion which shares my Boot Camp installation. There's no need to install 2 instances of Windows when using both Boot Camp, & a virtualization program like Fusion, or Parallels.

I also dedicated an older/smaller internal drive to my Windows installation. But you can certainly use a partition on your existing boot drive as well. The Boot Camp installer walks you through that.

Good luck, and enjoy.

macintosh doctor · Apr 24th, 2009, 10:06 AM

VM Ware all the way, that way you can have your mac os up and windows os up, nice bonus is that VW ware lets you even have the windows apps run natively with out windows os booted so that way it is like having those PC apps installed and running with out having two environments.

it is called Unity View
Mac and Windows unite with VMware Fusion’s powerful “Unity” view. Run Windows applications like Mac applications, quickly switching between Mac and Windows applications, minimizing Windows applications to your Dock, and even store Windows applications in your Dock to launch at a moment’s notice

you do not have to partition your HD with vwware, so that way it is backed up with time machine and can be cloned too in case of emergency.

screature · Apr 24th, 2009, 10:18 AM

Or best of both world's a Boot Camp install that virtualization makes use of (both Parallels and VMWare Fusion can do this). This way you can in boot directly into Windows for gaming and for everything else use virtualization (my preference is Fusion) so you can have both OSs open and running at the same time, drag and drop files one to the other and such..., swweeettt.

DDKD726 · Apr 26th, 2009, 12:42 AM

if you have the install CDs for the windows programs I would give crossover a try. I've used parallels in the best but you still end up dealing with the bugy windows os. I have a few programs running under crossover and they work just fine!

Ohmsford · Apr 27th, 2009, 07:46 PM

I have gone with the approach of installing windows via Bootcamp, and also having vmware Fusion installed in OS X. This way for any gaming or autocad uses, I will boot directly into autocad, but for file transfers, and managing my steam account (such as setting it up for new downloads, buying new games) I run it through vmware.

As of right now I have vmware open running windows and installing a few of my games through steam, while I am listening to music, on the web, and running a torrent client through OS X. I figured by now I'd have at least a couple hiccups with only 2gbs of ram, but everything is super fluid.

Also have to add that I really like how vmware fusion melds right into OS X, when the vmware window is on top, as soon as you scroll over it you're controlling windows, as soon as you scroll away from it you're controlling OS X. The Unity function furthers this by only displaying the applications open through windows, and not the start menu or task bar, but It doesn't really appeal to me very well, seems to jerky when enabled.

Let me know what you decide to use and your opinions on it.

gadgetguy · Apr 27th, 2009, 09:10 PM

	Quote:			Originally Posted by screature
	Or best of both world's a Boot Camp install that virtualization makes use of (both Parallels and VMWare Fusion can do this). This way you can in boot directly into Windows for gaming and for everything else use virtualization (my preference is Fusion) so you can have both OSs open and running at the same time, drag and drop files one to the other and such..., swweeettt.

I also do this, for gaming I boot directly into Bootcamp but for everything else I run Parallels. Trick is to install Bootcamp first, then Parallels will recognize it and it will boot up exactly the same as your Bootcamp partition.

Just a side note, an open source version of these emulators is called VirtualBox. It's made by Sun Microsystems (maker of Java) and it works excellent. You can even install Linux and other OSes too like BSD.

lyonsnet · Apr 28th, 2009, 03:36 PM

	Quote:			Originally Posted by gadgetguy
	I also do this, for gaming I boot directly into Bootcamp but for everything else I run Parallels. Trick is to install Bootcamp first, then Parallels will recognize it and it will boot up exactly the same as your Bootcamp partition. Just a side note, an open source version of these emulators is called VirtualBox. It's made by Sun Microsystems (maker of Java) and it works excellent. You can even install Linux and other OSes too like BSD.

I second VirtualBox, which runs perfectly on my MBP. Currently I have 2 Virtual machines running, a WinXP Pro and a Ubuntu machine.

The main reason I use VirtualBox (VMWare does this, and probably Parallels too) is taking snapshots. A snapshot takes the current machine state and saves it to the Mac hard disk. The advantage is, if I mess up the virtual machine (like get a Windows virus, or run "rm -rf / " on the linux machine) I can revert back to the previously saved state.

This is essential for me, as the different apps I create, I test on Mac/Win/Linux OS's.

Cheers,