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Parallels 9 or Boot Camp on Mini?

D

dudedude

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 10, 2014
75
0
I know this is more of a software question but I just bit the bullet hard and bought a "new" mini. So I got it from B&H and it comes with a free copy of Parallels 9. The question is do I keep it or sell it to off-set the cost?

I intend to use windows as little as possible, but if I need to; I like how seamless parallels looks (from videos) with apps running side by side etc. Should I just stick with the free Boot Camp or hold on to Parallels?

I realize I could also use Virtual Box or something if I go the VM route but it's not quite as seamless.

Thoughts?
 
dudedude said:
I know this is more of a software question but I just bit the bullet hard and bought a "new" mini. So I got it from B&H and it comes with a free copy of Parallels 9. The question is do I keep it or sell it to off-set the cost?

I intend to use windows as little as possible, but if I need to; I like how seamless parallels looks (from videos) with apps running side by side etc. Should I just stick with the free Boot Camp or hold on to Parallels?

I realize I could also use Virtual Box or something if I go the VM route but it's not quite as seamless.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

Neither here. I added an SSD for Mavericks and used the OEM drive for a stand alone Windows 8.1 installation. After installing Apple's drivers the HDD is identified as "BOOTCAMP" but I'm not using Bootcamp. Each drive is independent of the other.
 
Apart from the hardware - I use Parallels on my rMBP and my iMac and have been using it for many years.

My work forces me to use windows but i do not like to carry a windows laptop around so i went the macbook path - with office machine virtualised.

I have moved the virtual machine (and its updates) around across my Apple hardware and I have to say - it works perfect.

Last year on my new rMBP i tried the Bootcamp way but my boot times were slow and I hated booting into windows (and not being able to use OS X). So I went back again to parallels.

That's my experience.

Good luck!
 
scottsjack said:
Neither here. I added an SSD for Mavericks and used the OEM drive for a stand alone Windows 8.1 installation. After installing Apple's drivers the HDD is identified as "BOOTCAMP" but I'm not using Bootcamp. Each drive is independent of the other.
Click to expand...

Well technically speaking all that BOOTCAMP really is, is a dual boot. So you are dual booting (Bootcamping) but using 2 drives to do so. The only difference is the hardware not the setup. When you partition for BootCamp on one drive you are using a logical drive as opposed to a physical one.
 
I can't imagine rebooting to run a Windows program. I run Fusion at work because I need some Outlook features not in the mac version, plus a few programs that are Windows specific.

I run dual monitors, Windows full screen on one, OSX full screen on the other.

I have several shared folders and moving between the 2 OS's is transparent.

The best part is when Windows needs to reboot OSX keeps running and I can continue working.
 
If you need to run applications on a different OS, then Parallels/Fusion/etc. are great. I use Parallels to host Win XP and Win 7 so that I can run the Windows version of Quicken. The application windows in Parallels coherency mode look like application windows interspersed with my Mavericks application windows (with Windows widgets for resizing/minimizing).

If you never plan to run another OS on your machine, then may as well sell it or give it away to a friend.
 
Parallels gives you a lot more options with files and moving them between drives. I find it far better if you use OS X all the time and windows some of the time, but if you're a full time windows user the there might be more value in BC.
 
I have a Mini that was sourced from B&H as well.

LOVE Parallels - and the price was right at B&H.

I intended to run Parallels from the beginning as I need to use windows often and I could purchase Windows 7 (system builder) and sidestep Windows 8 which I dislike.

I do have two monitors and typically keep Windows open in one and have the Mac OS open in the other.

It's very slick.
 
If you plan on using Windows sparingly then I'd sell Parallels and run Boot Camp.
 
On my Mac Mini Server, BootCamp resides on HD2 while Parallels resides on HD1 alongside the rest of my OSX applications.

I then use Parallels to access BootCamp without having to reboot directly into BootCamp.
 
I am a Mac person...there is no way I would Windows without MacOS in control...so never Bootcamp for me. Having said that, I run Parallels 9 with Windows 7 Ultimate on my Mac Mini...SSD and 16GB RAM...that puppy flies.

Dude, you got that Parallels free...why not utilize it...you might learn something new!
 
Use to have boot camp running on my old imac everything was great just tired of always choosing what I wanted to log in via option key at start up. But got me a mac mini recently and installed parallels instead of boot camp, running Windows 7 and all I can say is Wow, easier to get into and very fast

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Roadking714 said:
Use to have boot camp running on my old imac everything was great just tired of always choosing what I wanted to log in via option key at start up. But got me a mac mini recently and installed parallels instead of boot camp, running Windows 7 and all I can say is Wow, easier to get into and very fast
Click to expand...

Edit: keep in mind get your ram updated to 16gb only because if your running other things beside parallels it will run down your ram very quick.
 
Thanks to everyone for the replies, It sounds like parallels is the way to go for convenience sake. I'm going 16GB of RAM and SSD so I'll be good to go in that aspect.
 
If you're playing games, you want to bootcamp for best performance.

For everything else, parallels or VMware would be fine.
 
I like the idea that Parallels can run a boot camp partition, I might do it that way so I can use it within mac os x but then boot into pure windows if I need the added power. Crossover is $60, so $60 or free it loses.
 
I've been using fusion for years. Never knew you could run a bootcamp partition in fusion.

Seems like a great option for those that mostly just want access to various windows applications at times but also have the ability to boot directly to windows when needed.

Will definitely investigate that further.
 
dudedude said:
Well technically speaking all that BOOTCAMP really is, is a dual boot. So you are dual booting (Bootcamping) but using 2 drives to do so. The only difference is the hardware not the setup. When you partition for BootCamp on one drive you are using a logical drive as opposed to a physical one.
Click to expand...

Correct. By "Bootcamp" I mean making a Bootcamp partition and installing Windows using Apple's Bootcamp app. If I decide a machine should only be Windows or Mac all I have to do is to pull the appropriate drive.
 
Personally I can't see the point of bootcamp unless you want to play Windows games. The performance of VM's in both Parallels and Fusion is excellent. I use Fusion for building test labs of Windows and Linux machines, sometimes with 8 VM's running on a MBP. With Fusion (and parallels) I have the ability to run each in a separate virtual desktop and use gestures to move between them. I can also take a snapshot of any of them before doing an upgrade or installing a new feature. If it breaks, I just roll-back the snapshot. This saves me a ton of time.

If I were you I would keep Parallels. You wouldn't get very much if you were to sell it anyway and it is a genuinely useful piece of software.
 
shaunp said:
Personally I can't see the point of bootcamp unless you want to play Windows games. The performance of VM's in both Parallels and Fusion is excellent. I use Fusion for building test labs of Windows and Linux machines, sometimes with 8 VM's running on a MBP. With Fusion (and parallels) I have the ability to run each in a separate virtual desktop and use gestures to move between them. I can also take a snapshot of any of them before doing an upgrade or installing a new feature. If it breaks, I just roll-back the snapshot. This saves me a ton of time.

If I were you I would keep Parallels. You wouldn't get very much if you were to sell it anyway and it is a genuinely useful piece of software.
Click to expand...

Yeah like I said I think I'll stick with Parallels. I would probably want bootcamp for the occasional game although the mac's steam library does continue to grow. At least this way I can use the same partition space and not take up additional by creating a VM on top of a boot camp partition. Seems like the best of both worlds to me.

I did check ebay prices for Parallels 9 seems like they go for around $50 which doesn't seem too bad to me. I'm actually going to do a single drive swap HDD for SSD and the 16GB RAM swap. I'll sell off the HDD and the 4GB of RAM even though they don't go for a whole lot. Even if I make $50-60 off the pair it means that much less that I paid for the Mini overall. I've learned to stop holding on to stuff letting it sit in a draw somewhere and gather dust and further depreciate in value.

Normally I'd put the drive in a usb enclosure or something but I have a good amount of drives currently and after getting a NAS I need it even less.
 
SpinalTap said:
Alternatively, run CrossOver13, and avoid any Windows OS whatsoever.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't recommend paying for software that's based on software that's already available for free, and open source.

There's also Wineskin Winery, an app that functions just like Crossover.
 
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