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    Windows XP or Windows 7 on Parallels?

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by fgielow, Sep 15, 2010.

  1. fgielow

    fgielow Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hey!
    I'm purchasing a macbook pro soon, and there are some applications exclusive to windows I can't survive without. Also, I'm pretty into gamming, so once in a while I'd boot in the Windows partition ir order to play a thing or another.

    So. What do you people recommend me? Installing Win7, or WinXP? Regarding gamming (booting on Windows), and also running applications (virtualized on Parallels).

    Windows XP is really less resources-demanding, however I dont know if it is still worth it.. Dunno if soon applications/gaming will stop having compatibility with winXP.


    Help?


    Thanks in advance,
    Fernando.
     
    fgielow, Sep 15, 2010
    #1
  2. Nick

    Nick Professor Carnista

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    Definitely Windows 7. It looks better, is more secure, and I think it give slightly better battery life according to my testing with a Macbook Pro 13.
     
    Nick, Sep 15, 2010
    #2
  3. Bog

    Bog Losing it...

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    I don't think that it's so clear-cut. If you want to virtualize an OS while the laptop is on battery power, you should consider using XP due to it's modest requirements. Still, Windows 7 is better relative to XP.
     
    Bog, Sep 15, 2010
    #3
  4. 52Fan

    52Fan Notebook Enthusiast

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    Windows 7 be my choice and i've installed SSD on my Macbook, so, it's really fast. You might consider that to.
     
    52Fan, Sep 15, 2010
    #4
  5. Luke1708

    Luke1708 Notebook Virtuoso NBR Reviewer

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    windows 7 will run well on the new version of parallells 6. It supports sata drives finally. this results in around 30% faster bootups.. Go for windows 7. Xp is dead, but as Bog said, Xp will use less power than 7, but there isn't that much of a difference.
     
    Luke1708, Sep 16, 2010
    #5
  6. fgielow

    fgielow Notebook Enthusiast

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    I think I am going for windows 7, then.
    Only last decision is whether to pick 64bits or 32 lol

    I'll buy it with 4GB of ram, but I intend to upgrade to 8GB later on.
    Guess 64, then.
     
    fgielow, Sep 16, 2010
    #6
  7. Nick

    Nick Professor Carnista

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    Yes, for 8 gigs you absolutely want 64 bit. Unless you want to have 4.5GB's of you memory not being used :)
     
    Nick, Sep 16, 2010
    #7
  8. masterchef341

    masterchef341 The guy from The Notebook

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    there isn't any serious downside to 64 bit windows. if you contemplate upgrading in the future, you should get 64 bit windows. even with 4 GB of ram i would recommend 64 bit windows.
     
    masterchef341, Sep 17, 2010
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  9. savvyav

    savvyav Newbie

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    64 bit you HAVE to format NTFS. In order to manipulate files back and forth through bootcamp, it needs to be FAT32. It's read only on the mac side.
    Go Win7 32bit.
     
    savvyav, Sep 18, 2010
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  10. DJRiful

    DJRiful Notebook Consultant

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    Windows 7, it is way better than XP.

    Windows 7 based on Windows Server 2008
     
    DJRiful, Sep 18, 2010
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  11. Nick

    Nick Professor Carnista

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    No thats not right, as I have Windows 7 64 bit in NTFS and I can copy and paste file in between OS's.
     
    Nick, Sep 19, 2010
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  12. doh123

    doh123 Without ME its just AWESO

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    without a NTFS writing add on.. you cannot directly manipulate files on a NTFS partition... however you can easily drag and drop files between OSX and Windows running in that partition just fine in the virtual machine.
     
    doh123, Sep 19, 2010
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  13. savvyav

    savvyav Newbie

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    I noticed this post was on parallels, sorry. I can read only from mac to PC. where would i find this add on? found it!
     
    savvyav, Sep 19, 2010
    #13
  14. fgielow

    fgielow Notebook Enthusiast

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    Aww, I did't know of that.

    Oh well. So I have to choose between being able to manipulate files or using all of my RAM, damn >.< hahaha
     
    fgielow, Sep 19, 2010
    #14