Running Windows on a Mac: Boot Camp, Parallels Desktop & VMware Fusion

[Michel.K]

Originally Posted by darkloki

I got a question: How stable is partitioning a 258gb SSD Drive dead even between both OSX LION and Windows 7 Pro and then using a second HDD to share amongst those two drives for media purposes???

Why do I have to do this??? because the Second Bay is only a 1.5 Sata and will not read a SSD oh and this is all Bootcamp not going to run a VM

I think 100+ gigs should be sufficient for the OS and whatever applications I may put on top, but is using a second HDD to share between the two OS realistic?

Should be no problems at all partitioning it, it's just like any other storage device pretty much.
You can have a second HDD too if you want, no problems.

Why won't your macbook read the SSD from the second bay? It should work without any problems.

Yes, absolutely. That's what i was doing before i went over to windows completely. And why i went over to windows is because i'm a huge quakelive fan and it crashes constantly in OSX no matter what browser and has bad performance, in windows it's fine.

[saturnotaku]

Originally Posted by Michel.K

1. for me though the touchpad is not getting better than it is as it's not the newer version, so i never thought of that .. Is the sensitivity also less in windows? Because that is what i have noticed on any apple laptop is that it is exactly like the touch displays on the iphone/ipod/ipad etc.. and not like the ones on the PC's where you have to have some pressure for it to register which ruins the feel and ease of use of a touchpad.

In Windows, the trackpad "tracks" differently. It's not as smooth as it is in OS X. Also, even though I've only been using Lion for a couple weeks, I've become used to the gestures, which are non-functional on the Windows side. It spoils you pretty quickly.

Btw, isn't there a corresponding PC laptop with same integrated and decicated graphics solution which driver you can use instead for those who have a dedicated gpu also?

Both NVIDIA and AMD have their own solutions that combine a GPU integrated into the CPU (for enhanced battery life) and separate, discreet one that's designed to only kick in when needed (eg playing a game).

As NVIDIA doesn't make CPUs, their setup, Optimus, pairs with Intel processors. The GPU on the CPU is the Intel HD3000 (or similar) and is connected to the notebook's display. The discreet NVIDIA chip channels its processing through the Intel GPU via the display driver. When it works, it's great, but that's not always the case. Sometimes you have to engage in driver trickery to get it functioning properly, and even then it doesn't always behave the way you want.

A few notebooks have switching between the graphics on an Intel CPU and AMD GPU. The HP Envy and some Pavilion models have a BIOS setting that allows for "fixed mode" switching where you control, via software, how you want the switchable graphics to work. You can have the AMD GPU working all the time when the notebook is plugged in, and it will automatically switch to the Intel one when on battery. You can tweak it to suit your specific needs. Several Sony Vaio machines, IMO, have the best type of dual-graphic solutions, and that is a physical switch on the notebook itself that allows you to choose between integrated and discreet. This puts you in pretty much complete control over how you want your system to behave. The major drawback is that AMD and Intel don't write their drivers to accommodate this. You need to rely on Sony, who very rarely provides updates, or an enterprising 3rd party who has the time to restructure the code.

AMD also pairs its own notebook CPUs with a dedicated AMD GPU. A few Asus and HP models go this route. It generally works OK, but there's a rather large problem of programs and games written using OpenGL not being able to take advantage of the discreet GPU - they always run on the much slower integrated processor. This is something that could, theoretically, be fixed using the same BIOS update as I mentioned above, but no such thing has been released.

I personally have never had good luck with notebooks that use automatic graphic switching, except for my MBP. The switching works seamlessly within Mac OS for the few games I do play. On the Windows side, I don't need to worry about it at all as the discreet GPU runs all the time. I don't care about the battery-life hit because I very rarely am in Windows while unplugged.

3. Sure, the specs may be equal, but there always is for less price getting a PC, always have been.. I didn't mention that, i meant the exterior, which is not nearly as nice on any competitiors PC laptops.

Aesthetics are entirely subjective. I personally like the way the Sony Vaio SA, HP Envy 15, and Samsung Series 7 look. Yes, they are not quite as sexy as a MacBook, but they're still very worthy alternatives. I was speaking more on the objective features of screen types/resolution and overall hardware specifications.

[darkloki]

Originally Posted by Michel.K

Why won't your macbook read the SSD from the second bay? It should work without any problems.

Because like I told you the sata connection in that bay is 1.5 and the drive must be able to downclock to the slower speed of 1.5 to function properly and a SSD won't do that, however a standard drive will.

[Wolfpup]

Originally Posted by Michel.K

Because that is what i have noticed on any apple laptop is that it is exactly like the touch displays on the iphone/ipod/ipad etc.. and not like the ones on the PC's where you have to have some pressure for it to register which ruins the feel and ease of use of a touchpad.

What type of notebooks are you using? I don't like touchpads and replace them with a real mouse whenever possible, but I've got an Asus N80, G74, little Acer, and a Macbook Air right now, and all of them work identically with the touchpad-there's no real pressure used on it, I mean no more than on an iPod or something.

3. Sure, the specs may be equal, but there always is for less price getting a PC, always have been.. I didn't mention that, i meant the exterior, which is not nearly as nice on any competitiors PC laptops.

Well, that's just personal preference. I think Apple's PCs look fine, but I'd never pick them over anything else for looks. Don't even know (or care) whether I think I like how they look the best.

[Michel.K]

Originally Posted by darkloki

Because like I told you the sata connection in that bay is 1.5 and the drive must be able to downclock to the slower speed of 1.5 to function properly and a SSD won't do that, however a standard drive will.

I'm not sure if i understand you here, any SSD works fine with any SATA1,2,3 connection. I'm running a SATA3 SSD on SATA1 in my old macbook.

How it works is that the SATA1 (or 1.5Gbit/s) is simply just a throttle, it will not make you unable to run it. It will simply be slower, but as SSD's main thing is low accesstimes you won't notice the drawback if you are not copying large files all the time. Load times on the other hand will be as quick as otherwise.

Originally Posted by Wolfpup

What type of notebooks are you using? I don't like touchpads and replace them with a real mouse whenever possible, but I've got an Asus N80, G74, little Acer, and a Macbook Air right now, and all of them work identically with the touchpad-there's no real pressure used on it, I mean no more than on an iPod or something.



Well, that's just personal preference. I think Apple's PCs look fine, but I'd never pick them over anything else for looks. Don't even know (or care) whether I think I like how they look the best.

I don't care for what you like or not, when it comes to not using a touchpad as that is irrelevant for what i'm saying
But usually when you get a laptop/notebook you are usually making use of the touchpad if you use it as intended, ofcourse a mouse will always feel better. But if you've used the multi touch gestures on a macbook, then it can quickly spoil you and keep on using it as it's better than the competitors touchpads when it comes to function. Usually apples touchpads are smoother and just works better, and i've been using almost 20-30 different laptops over the years and only tryed out a couple of macbooks and they all feel different when you use them.

It's not just the looks, it's the functions aswell, for example, the lids are lock-free and the magsafe connector is really nice, also slot-in drives are much easier to use among other things, all the small things makes a big difference for the experience when you use it. Also having a laptop that looks good is never bad, as you're probably gonna use it everyday you might aswell get something good too look at while you're at it, i see it as life quality or whatever you can call it.. Things that makes you happier to look at, instead of looking at things that look boring or not esthetically good, the majority likes to look at things that looks good and makes them feel better, no matter if it's cars, women, your home or whatever it may be If you get my point here.

Also the resale value on a macbook is much higher than any corresponding pc, so the extra money is most likely something you will get back in the same amount as if you where to sell the pc second hand later on as you would with the macbook.

[darkloki]

i don't know I own a X256 Corsair SSD drive it runs in Primary not in optical, don't know how else to explain it to you.

[kornchild2002]

I wouldn't go so far as to say that every SSD out there can run on SATA I, II, and III. I haven't found any documentation stating that the OCZ Agility 3 line works with SATA I, only SATA II and III. Some SSDs might not be able to appropriately step-down to SATA I. Besides, there is absolutely no reason to put an SSD in a 2010-2011 MB's/MBP's optical drive bay when it would have a greater benefit in the primary slot. At least a 5400RPM HDD isn't going to reduce in performance all that much when stepping down to SATA I while an SSD will.

[rppkn.com]

On my macbook pro, I am able to run windows in fusion directly off the bootcamp partition. Is the reverse possible? Boot into windows, and run the mac virtually in vmware workstation? Not a new image of the mac, but pointing it to the existing mac partition?

[Wolfpup]

That's a cool idea, and there probably technically is SOME way of doing something like that, but I think officially you're not allowed to virtualize OS X...I think...or not the regular version...or something.

[mmoy]

I think that you can legally virtualize starting with Lion.

You can virtualize Snow Leopard on Snow Leopard on a Mac - I don't know if it is allowed under the license terms but there's nothing stopping you from doing it on some of the Virtual Machine products.