So, we've finally come to the point in our lives that it would be better to just get a Windows computer rather than borrowing one for the few times a year we need it. Since we wouldn't be using it for much other than ordering prints through our lab, it really doesn't need to be very powerful. We would probably only use it a couple times a year. No editing, no Photoshop, etc. Keep in mind that I don't know much about Windows and can't fix it if it ever has problems.

We have a few choices:

We could run Windows on Lynn's iMac (2 Ghz C2Duo, 2.5GB) and have Boot Camp make a partition on the lone internal drive. She isn't too wild about having windows on the internal drive (it won't install on an external). We'd need to upgrade to OS X 10.5 and purchase Windows. All told it would cost between $230 and $280 or so ($129 for 10.5 and between $100 and $150 for Windows depending on flavor). I don't want to use Parallels because it's an extra expense and we really will only be using Windows a few times a year.

Option two is running Windows on my Mac Pro (2x 2.8GHz Quad Core Xeon, 2GB RAM) on a new internal drive. I like the idea of Windows being on its own drive rather than on a partition of the boot drive (like it would be on Lynn's iMac). This option would make it so I wouldn't be able to use the Mac Pro when Lynn was ordering prints. But, again, we'd only be doing this a few times a year. This option would cost between $160 and $210 ($60 for the drive plus Windows),

Option three is purchasing a new laptop (with Windows installed) I want a laptop because I really don't want to have a tower taking up space. The laptop would be able to be put away when it's not needed. We have an extra monitor, keyboard, and mouse, so Lynn wouldn't be working directly on the laptop. The obvious advantage here is that Windows isn't anywhere near the Macs and it's a completely separate system. This would cost between $350 and $400.

Option four is getting a desktop computer (with Windows installed). Since we already have a Windows keyboard, a monitor and a mouse, that wouldn't play into the cost. The advantage to this over the laptop is larger/faster hard drive, faster processor, upgradablility, more stable because it wouldn't be moving around and, and less expensive.

So, what would you do? We'll probably be making a decision this morning or early afternoon. Thanks.

Out of curiosity, what lab requires you order prints via windows?

Roes works both mac and PC.

I'd drop it on the MacPro... but pick up VM ware or Parallels... that way you can still work on Mac side while the pc side is chugging away on the uploads. If the Pro has decent RAM, you should have no major problems switching between the two.

It's for Miller's undergrad. Also for Marathon's directory software (the Mac version really sucks). Everything else we can use the Macs. Like I said, we won't need it very often.

The Mac Pro only has 2GB of RAM. Parallels is intriguing, but another hundred bucks. Can it have Windows running on another hard drive (external maybe?). The upload will be huge -- it'll take a while, so running Windows in parallel (ha!) would help.

If you have boot camp with Windows installed, and then install Parallels it can run off the boot camp partition.... So you're still in your main partition, but Parallels grabs the OS from the other side of the partition.


I'm not sure sure about 2nd hard drive (I've got a MacBOOK pro, so one hard drive only!)

Well, there's nothing installed (Boot Camp or Windows) so we'd be starting from scratch. I think what I'll do is upgrade Lynn's iMac to 10.5, Install Parallels, then install Windows. The new version of Parallels can keep everything separate from the Mac side of things. I just looked through the Parallels site and it looks like a great solution. Thanks for your help.

Hi Adam...for what it is worth, I currently run VMWare on my MacBook Pro for Windows XP; I have found that it works better than Parallels. However, I use this Mac at my full-time job and VMWare worked much better with the exsiting network.

The MacBook pro can easily be upgraded. Depending on which version you have, it will support up to 4gb of RAM. You can find the RAM info and purchase RAM from the Transintl MacBook Pro RAM Page and a 4gb kit costs all of about 70 dollars and takes 5 minutes to install.

I understand your reasoning for wanting to run parallels but honestly if this is just something you don't plan to use a lot, why spend the extra money? (It is, in fact, windows...) BootCamp built into OS X 10.5 (make sure and run the 10.5.5 Combo Update if you haven't already!) is about as solid as you'll get for a windows installation on mac, it's easy to set up and doesn't require a second hard drive. If you're worried about hard drive space, just upgrade the hard drive in your macbook pro. It's easy - I did the upgrade on two macbook pros yesterday.

Good luck man.

Have you got a good link to a good tutorial on how to upgrade the drives?

That's on my wish list for this winter --- Can't afford a Mac Pro, so I have to limp along with my MBP with 3 gig and 150g hard drive.

This one's the best I've found so far, and OWC is my favorite place on earth so it's a win-win! http://eshop.macsales.com/tech_center/inde...d/intel15h.html

I just installed the new Hitachi 7K320 7200rpm 320gb hard drive in my macbook pro and it's smokin! Also it sports like a 22% increase in power efficiency over the 7K200 (the 7200rpm 200gb model)

Also, get This Tool Kit for the installtion. It's a must-have.

Give me a call or shoot me an e-mail if you have any questions.

thanks!

No problem!

Thanks for all your help. And I know I can put more RAM in the Mac Pro -- I'm just not doing it right now. I think it'll take 32GB or something.

We ended up getting VM ware and Windows for the iMac. This way we don't need to upgrade the OS to 10.5 (10.4 is fine). And we also won't need to partition the drive.

We don't upgrade our computers too often, so that's why I didn't list it as an option. Before the MacPro, I had a G4/400. Before that, it was a 7100/66. And before that a 512 "Fat Mac" that was upgraded to a 512E. And if you think opening an iPod is tricky, try opening a 512E or installing RAM into a 7100/66 -- now that's tricky. Next upgrade will most likely be RAM in the Mac Pro -- but I have no idea when that'll happen.

Sorry, thought you said macbook pro... haha so easy to confuse between the two in forum posts.

Yep, your mac pro will take 32gb... make sure and install it correctly... if you've got an early 2008 model (I think any of the 8 cores are like this) you don't always install the same number of DIMMs on each riser.

I would highly recommend upgrading to 10.5... it runs much more stable than 10.4 and everything is compatible.... there's really no reason not to upgrade... especially for the mac pro (it will run more efficiently on 10.5 from my experience)

I may be able to copy my leopard DVD for you if you'd like.

As far as VMware goes, no experience there, but I personally wouldn't want to have windows on the same partition as my mac OS... just seems like you'd have all your eggs in one basket if something goes wrong (corrupt file, virus etc.)

Let me know if you'd like me to try and copy my leopard DVD for you... it's not a difficult upgrade at all and should not require any re-installation of software.

The Mac Pro has 10.5. It's the iMac that's still on 10.4. Thanks for the offer, but I'll upgrade later.

I think you did the right thing with VMWare.

I tried to install windows through bootcamp on the 8 core 2.8 mac pro, and had nothing but problems. Its a pain to reboot into windows, regardless of how infrequently you do it. This also caused some issues with the computer in general...when starting up normally it would get confused to what the correct boot drive and I would get a blinking folder with a question mark on it, meaning the computer couldn't find an OS, so I always had to hold the option key while starting up to get around this.

I killed windows and bootcamp and the computer started working as designed again. Go figure.

And for the few times I need to run windows, VMWare is great. Being able to suspend the VM makes starting it really fast. Instead of having to start windows up, all you need to do is reactivate the VM. It takes about 20 seconds, which is pretty good.

You can also set it up so that the file size only grows as you need more space. If you don't really install anything, windows shouldn't really grow at all. Mine is at 13 gigs currently and has been there for a while.

If you are using timemachine, make sure you exclude the Virtual Machine directly from that though...don't need to constantly back up a 13 gig file.