Should I buy a mid-range Vista PC, or get a MacBook Pro and use Parallels?
2007/02/21 13:36:01
Is it worth buying a mid-range $2000-2500 Dell PC or iMac and running Windows Vista on it, or is it better to buy a high-end computer like the MacBook Pro and run Vista using Parallels?
-- Submitted by: Daniel
Answer by:
Jeremy Roche
If you want to use Vista as your main operating system, we'd suggest buying a PC -- it will be much cheaper.
There are two ways to run Windows Vista on a Mac. The first is a dual-boot scenario using Boot Camp (a free download from Apple) to install Vista on a separate partition to Mac OS X. The second is to install Parallels Desktop for Mac (US$49), which is virtualisation software which emulates Windows Vista under Mac OS X.
I use a MacBook Pro at work and use Mac OS X as my primary operating system. I only load up Vista under Parallels to test our site in Internet Explorer -- it's more convenient than rebooting every time into Vista (the Boot Camp option). You don't want to run it full time in Parallels as it takes up so much memory. It also takes a while to boot up the operating system in Parallels under OS X to run a single application such as IE. There is a maximum amount of memory you can assign for Vista in Parallels, too: 1.5GB of RAM, 32MB graphics memory -- not enough to get the pretty Aero effects and certainly not enough for serious gaming/DirectX apps.
Boot Camp, on the other hand, is not virtualisation software: you choose at startup which operating system to run by holding down the option key (and you have to assign one as the default when installing Vista). Apple doesn't officially support Boot Camp or Windows at this stage (the software is still in beta), nor does it sell Vista with its Macs. Also, not all of the Mac components -- remote control, motion sensor, light sensor -- work under Vista because of driver problems.
No matter if you use Parallels or Boot Camp you'll need to factor in the cost of Vista ($385-$751) as a separate purchase for a Mac.
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gav
22/02/2007 08:39 AM
wow, talk about chalk and cheese. Im not sure where you are heading, as you mention pcs, imacs and laptops. So are you in the market for a latop or desktop machine? THe bottom line really will depend on what you are using it for. Firstly, I wouldnt buy a dell desktop, no matter what, simply because you can do better. Imacs are awesome, and at this stage, I havent seen a huge failure rate with them. However, for personal use, I still have issues with having my screen bundled with my machine. If something fails, you lose the lot until you can get it repaired, although obviously the same can be said for laptops. I would be gunning for a macbook pro, and dual booting it for windows intensive operations. I wouldnt bother with vista at this point, as you can pick up an xp pro license pretty cheap if you look hard enough. I would then use parallels for those operations that you only need to do quickly and dont wont to reboot. I have run loads of software using xp pro on mac minis, with very little in regards to failure rate. However, once again, it all boils down to what software you will be predominately running. Hope this helps a little. I work support for a university, which uses dell, hp, sony and apple. Cheers Gav
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