Macbook Air 2.13 and 120GB SSD with virtualised Windows.....

[Arex]

Hi guys,

I could do with some advise - I have tried running Parallels and Windows XP on my Unibody macbook Pro (2.52GHz with 4GB RAM) with a traditional hard drive. It runs OK, but can be a bit laggy at times.

I really want to cut down to a Macbook Air as I love the size, etc. however I am wondering if using the SSD instead would create a "lag free" virtualised experience, running as quickly and easily as if the windows apps were native mac apps..... Had anyone tried it?

 

[nph]

Hi

I have tried VMWare on a MBA rev B w SSD.
It is not like running Apple apps but it beats an original MBP from -06 when it comes to speed.
It is usable and surprisingly fast although not like an Apple app.

 

[Scottsdale]

With the SSD in the MBA you're not going to be waiting on drive spinning and no beachballs. It's much faster for common things like bootup, shutdown, opening apps, large files, and etc.

However, an SSD in an MBP would do the same for it.

 

[LAS.mac]

Hi guys,

I could do with some advise - I have tried running Parallels and Windows XP on my Unibody macbook Pro (2.52GHz with 4GB RAM) with a traditional hard drive. It runs OK, but can be a bit laggy at times.

I really want to cut down to a Macbook Air as I love the size, etc. however I am wondering if using the SSD instead would create a "lag free" virtualised experience, running as quickly and easily as if the windows apps were native mac apps..... Had anyone tried it?

That' sounds strange to me. I have an imac (mid '08) with 2.8 Ghz and 4Gb ram. I use Parallels 4 quite often, mainly to run Excel macros. I have no lagging at all. Not only, but my macros (Excel XP under win XP Professional) are way faster than with my PC laptop (Dell XPS, 2.0 Ghz, 4Gb, Vista Professional). And were also faster on the mac with only 2 Gb ram (I have 512 Mb in Parallels).
I guess this is due to Vista vs. XP. In your case, however, sounds weird because I don't think that the processor difference between 2.53 to 2.8 should be so evident.
About the MBA: provided that it has 2 Gb RAM and a quite speedy processor, and that it has a SSD, it should have plenty of power to run emulation with Parallels. I don't know about gaming, but for normal use, it should be OK.

 

[hitekalex]

Parallels v4 / XP runs fine on my 2.16Ghz/SSD.

 

[Arex]

Cool - thanks for the feedback folks.....

 

[LAS.mac]

Parallels v4 / XP runs fine on my 2.16Ghz/SSD.

2.13 I guess...